Wicked Spirits! X Cut
by Lovely Grifter
Summary: A slightly perverted version of the brilliant Spirited Away movie. Set in the movie verse, HxC are adults when they first meet, after Chihiro's family stumbles into the realm.Incorporates hentai interpretations and added scenes. ON HIATUS.
1. Please ignore this chapter

*sigh*

Long story but I need to put this blank chapter here for a reason. (T.T)

Please move onto the next chapter for the start of the fic.

I'm really sorry for the inconvenience.


	2. First Embrace

**Summary:** This is set in the movie verse, where Chihiro and her parents are trapped in the enchanted bathhouse realm. The premise of the story is the same as the movie where mum and dad Ogino are turned to pigs and Chihiro is trapped in the spirit world. Only in this story, Chihiro's character is a 22-year old university graduate (not an 11-year old girl), who has decided to move to the new town with her parents. Haku is 30-year old (human years) dragon/water spirit. Written from Chihiro's POV where HxC fall in love. I'm chopping up the scenes from the film, inserting my creative take on the premise, with possible additional scenes and dialogue to give an alternate interpretation on the events in the movie. For some readers, Haku may seem OCC- but hey, it's a hentai version of Spirited Away. :)

We start the story after Chihiro and parents have gone through the tunnel. The Ogino parents have started eating from the uninhabited stalls, and Chihiro is exploring around by herself.

**Rating for Chapter: T **for adult themes.

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**1: First embrace**

She wasn't in the mood to pig out like her parents were currently doing. God knows where the food came from and Chihiro was on a diet as it was. Since graduation, in the hopes of scoring and maybe finding a boyfriend, Chihiro had bought saucy, lacy and provocative lingerie. Furthermore, she secretly wore them to _feel_ sexy. Since that day, Chihiro was driven to drop excess weight, in case someone other than her reflection in the mirror might see her in designer 'Wicked Secrets' lingerie or, possibly, her birthday suit.

"That's weird…it's a bathhouse," Chihiro whispered to no one in particular as she stepped onto a bridge that led towards a red ornate structure perched on a mountain. The sound of metal clanking under the bridge distracted Chihiro from her thoughts and she ran to peer below the bridge. An antique like train ran from the mouth of the mountain the bathhouse sat on. "Wow!" Chihiro gasped at the unexpected sight. This place was so odd and it definitely wasn't an abandoned theme park as her father surmised. "Not a single male in sight," she said despondently, allowing her eyes to scan the scenery.

_Pat…pat…pat_ sounds came from the bridge and Chihiro swung her head to her right to catch a strikingly dark haired man with piercing emerald green eyes glowering at her. His skin was unnaturally porcelain white, with dead straight silken hair that sat just above his shoulders and a fringe casting a shadow over the exotic slant of his eyes. He wore a grey and blue outfit that she'd only seen in those Japanese period dramas. Chihiro unconsciously caught her breath, her heart stuttered and her cheek burnt red at his menacing approach. Her lower half began to tremble uncontrollably as his steely gaze roamed over her body, ending at her eyes.

"_You shouldn't be here. Get out of here now,_" the man's icy voice was clipped, his body craning forward predatorily, and the shadows of the bridge rail stretching behind him as he commanded. "It's almost night. Leave, before it gets dark. They're lighting the lamps. Get out of here. You've got to get across the river. Go! I'll distract them." His arm shot towards her and the heat from his hands pressed on Chihiro's back, roughly shoving her back across the bridge. His touch was hard and strong, almost searing through to her skin.

"What's up with him?" Chihiro squinted through the shadows back at the stranger; her heart was pumping loudly thinking of his hand on her body seconds earlier. He was blowing something from his palm at the bathhouse. "Weirdo," Chihiro thought scampering down the steps, falling into the darkness in search of her parents. "Why are all the hot ones always such arse holes?" _He's way out of my league anyway_, Chihiro shook her head gruffly.

Snorting, grunting muffles came from the blackness of the street pulling Chihiro from her perverse meanderings. _"Mum, Dad!"_ Chihiro, searching for her parents, screamed into the darkness. More snorts and echoes of sloppy smacks lead Chihiro to her parents. Their backs were to her, still pigging out like pigs. "Mum, Dad! Come on quit eating! Let's get out here!" She yelled with irritation, upset her parents were eating more than their daily caloric allowance. They suddenly seemed horrendously fat! Her father was too absorbed to hear her, leaving Chihiro no choice but to shove him hard until he swung around to greet her.

"AHHH!" She shrieked.

_Those eyes! Dad? No way! What the hell is a pig doing here! Why's he wearing dad's shirt? _

WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! A black whip emerged from a cloud of steam and cracked on the pig's head, sending it plummeting to the ground, taking with it the plates it had been devouring food off.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She cried, watching in disgust as the pig with a crew cut oinked loudly to her. _Is he talking to me? Dad? _"Oh my god! Where am I? Mum, Dad! Where are you?" she wailed, backing off in terror at the slobbering pigs in her parents' clothes.

"Mum, Dad! Where are you?" Chihiro darted around the street lined with red lanterns that lit up one by one, illuminating ghostly shadows shaped like transparent globs floating around her.

_I told them we shouldn't have entered that tunnel! Maybe they've gone back there?_ Chihiro ran for her life back to the clock tower, stumbling down the steps past the frog sculpture straight into murky waters.

"Water!" she exclaimed in disbelief, struggling out of the icy liquid, sitting soaked on the steps. Water wasn't there before!

Over the black horizon, a ferry materialized from thin air, ebbing elegantly in her direction.

"_I'm dreaming, wake up! Go away. Disappear!" _She prayed to herself, wishing it a bad dream, squatting on the steps, rocking in denial of her situation. Creaking sounds came from the ferry. Instinctively she smacked her hands over her eyes to hide whatever vision was causing the eerie noise. The creaking persisted so she hesitantly spread her fingers, peering though the gaps to investigate the cause. Doors on the ferry opened and apparitions and odd mask shapes or kites danced in procession through the air to the steps. Chihiro's breath halted in shock, realizing she was witnessing the supernatural sight through her _transparent hands_.

_These masks floating in the air HAVE to be a dream!_ Chihiro's eyes bulged in horror, her brain propelling her legs to run blindly onto a grassy knoll, crouching into a tight ball, alone and nerve stricken. She was cold, too cold and so afraid. A deathly silence cloaked her. _Mum…Dad._ _My hands going transparent by the lake HAD to be a dream._

Strong fingers grasped her shoulders. _Could it be him?_ Chihiro craned her head up hesitantly to discover two green eyes scanning her face. His face was so close she felt the warmness of his breath on her cheeks, breathing in his musky herbal scent of him. Again, her heart rattled wildly at his presence.

"Don't be afraid. I just want to help you," his voice, now gentle, reassured her.

"No, no!" Chihiro shrieked though her heart cried, _Yes, yes!_ Both her hands passed right through the man when Chihiro tried to push him away. Observing him this time round, he really did look like he belonged to some old fashion samurai novel, only more beautiful than any character she could have read about.

"Open your mouth and eat this. You have to eat food from this world or else you'll disappear," he pressed.

"No!" she spat viciously, but Chihiro could only focus on the touch of his left hand that remained glued to her shoulder as he spoke.

"Don't worry. It won't turn you into a pig," he said, pushing his long slender fingers to part her lips, forcing the morsel into her mouth. The red berry tasted like play dough yet his fingers in her mouth shot an erotic bolt up her spine. "Chew it and swallow. There you go you're all better. See for yourself." He held up his palm to her face, and Chihiro pressed hers to his. _Such hot, slender, strong yet supple hands_, she admired privately, averting her eyes in fear they would advertise her wayward thoughts to him.

"I'm ok," she murmured weakly, lost to everything but his contact, the chill vanishing from her body.

"You see?" he smiled affectionately down at her, clasping her hand tightly between his, and Chihiro's heart slowed, wishing the mysterious man would never let go.

"Now come with me," he said in a rich, tender tone, still holding her hand tightly as he stood.

Chihiro climbed from her romanticizing, still refusing to release his hand. _Oh, my parents! Shame on me for hankering after this guy when my parents are in trouble!_ "Where are my mum and dad? They…they really didn't turn into pigs, did they?"

"You can't see them now, but you will," he continued soothingly, searching up at the sky behind him.

Chihiro followed the line of his gaze into the indigo sky streaked with red. A dark shadow of what appeared to be a gigantic bird with what _looked_ like a human head soared menacingly above.

"Don't move!" The mysterious man hushed suddenly crouching protectively over her, crushing Chihiro against the brick wall with the length of his body. His left arm slammed her hard to his chest. His right arm stretched towards the wall barring her escape from him, or was he protecting her from the oddball bird woman in the sky? Her pulse screamed in panic; in her world, a strange man pinning her to a wall in a dark alley would have her blaring on her rape whistle. Oddly, this moment with this stranger was gloriously arousing, in such an intimate embrace. Chihiro secretly smiled and nestled closer to the man, her lips pulsing and her privates moistening.

"That bird's looking for you, you've got to get out of here," he warned her, standing to pull her up when the bird was out of sight.

"Ah! My legs I can't stand up!" She couldn't stand because _he_ had been so near, literally weakening her knees. Oh, the power this stranger had over her. "Help, what do I do?" Chihiro feigned, too embarrassed to confess why she couldn't move to the mysterious man; wishing he would scoop her up in his arms.

"Calm down and take a deep breath," he said, kneeling and grasping both her hands. His every word was killing her too softly in very wicked ways. She wondered if it was his custom to hold hands with strange women, even if it wasn't necessary.

"In the name of the water and the wind within me, unbind her."

Chihiro watched mesmerized. The man chanted as his hands gracefully hovered over her pale, lanky legs. Luckily (or perhaps unluckily?), he didn't touch her, else she was sure she would really faint and he would _have_ to carry her to wherever he wanted to take her.

Maybe, this world wouldn't be so bad.

* * *

AN: I'd love reviews - who doesn't? :)

_**DISCLAIMER: I didn't create SA, write or animate the movie or create the characters. I'm borrowing the characters to write for fun. Any dialogue you recognise in this FF is taken from the movie, as this FF is set in the movie verse. Everything else is mine. I have no money so it's useless taking me to court. 'Nuff said. **_


	3. When will I see you Again?

**Summary**: Intimate moments as Haku helps sneak Chihiro into the bath house.

**Rating for Chapter: M **for adult themes and language.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**2: When will I see you again?**

"Get up."

The rest was a blur and mélange of scenery streaking by. The orange-lit alley widened as they entered and narrowed when Haku's hands beckoned the sliding door open with a slam!

Chihiro followed in his wake, running on air, hand gripped firmly in his, afraid she'd stumble mid-run or fall from the mysterious man, losing her grip on this dream. Enormous herb urns, frozen whale sized tuna and squid piled high and spilled from the walls to the earth floor. Their every labored breath appeared as white clouds in the air in the chilled temperature. Another door slammed open. The temperature spiked in this room, along with the stench of manure and moldy hay in a wooden barn. Pigs were fenced and packed tightly to either side of the barn, squealing in protest and distress. The man's feet pounded soundlessly on the earth, streaking effortlessly through the second structure. Chihiro whipped her head behind to stare in sympathy at the imprisoned pigs as the barn sunk into darkness.

_Once again here I am, running down a hill, hand in hand with him…_Chihiro smiled, mesmerized by his lithe figure guiding her to safety.

A yellow and amber aura arched over the horizon, murmurs went from a whisper to loud bustle in the distance. Bright colors bobbed across the bridge Chihiro had seen earlier, as they both emerged from the darkened garden path. She squinted her eyes, trying to focus on the crowd ebbing into the immense bathhouse. The enormous, ornate structure dotted with lit lanterns dominated the night sky. An ancient cypress twisted towards the lilac sky towered at the front of the entrance.

As Chihiro drew closer to the bridge, she realized the crowd was like nothing she'd seen, but oddly shaped and definitely not of her world: huge cloaking apparitions, colorful floating blobs with lampshades over their heads, and gigantic chickens with leaves over their heads ambled toward the entry. Surely, it had to be some kind of theme park or costume party the man was taking her to? _Is he taking me on a blind date?_ Chihiro's heart swelled in delight.

He'd been deathly quiet scanning the activities of the bathhouse, suddenly halting behind a tiny wooden gate. "Ah!" Chihiro gasped in shock, the momentum of her walk crushed her breasts into the man's rock hard arm, her face slamming into the nape of his neck. Her breath flew from her mouth, her body burst into flames and she was positive she heard a wicked snicker escape from his lips.

He stood motionless at the gate, moving his arms seductively against Chihiro, assessing what was beneath her flimsy t-shirt, rubbing the back of his forearms on her heaving breasts. The pounding in his chest mimicked hers and the man tilted his face slightly to her cheek and smirked appreciatively. A salacious glint in his darkened eyes, promising an unspoken intimate secret, reduced Chihiro to a helpless puddle. _Or is it just my imagination?_ She puzzled, her hazel eyes dilated in excitement at his touch, staring at his upturned chin to hide her embarrassment at his overtly sexual maneuvers. _Thank heavens I worked on my abs so he can't feel my love handles! _Chihiro gratefully reflected, squeezing his hand in fondness at what otherwise, if with any other man but _him_, was sexual harassment.

"You have to hold your breath when we cross the bridge," he whispered into the nape of Chihiro's neck, his lips teasingly brushing her naked skin. Her knees wobbled in response.

The man relaxed his pleasurable assault on Chihiro and reached over the fence to unlock the wooden gate, watching for the right moment to join the crowd streaming into the bathhouse as he did so. Chihiro continued her vigil on the man's chin, clamping her mouth shut to prevent her heart from flying out in bewilderment that such a hot stranger was hitting on her. "Even the tiniest breath will break the spell, and then everyone will see you," he finished pulling away, leaving an empty void between them. His hand left hers, pushing the gate open to enter the lit path. He let Chihiro step in front of him, locking the gate behind them.

_Don't let go…_Chihiro begged silently, already missing the blissful warmth and comfort of this stranger, in this strange land. _Don't leave me alone please, _she bit out in quietude, roping her arms around his, hugging her body tightly to his. "I'm scared."

"Now just stay calm." The man's eyes were transfixed in deep concentration on the crowd ahead, as though he was doing something forbidden by being with Chihiro.

"Welcome, welcome. Always nice to see you," chirped a happy voice somewhere on the bridge. "Welcome back, welcome back!" The voices continued in a lilting joyful tone. "Welcome, welcome!"

"I'm back from my mission." The friendliness fell from the man's voice as he addressed the two odd potato like characters. The two workers bowed graciously, greeting the anomalous monsters, gigantic birds and ancient looking kites passing.

"Ahhhhh, welcome back Master Haku," replied the potato shaped man respectfully.

At closer inspection in the glow of the lamplight, Chihiro saw his skin was reptilian and his eyes bulbous like a swamp creature, possibly a frog.

_Haku? Is that your name?_ Chihiro eyes stole a glance to inspect Haku's ethereal profile. She didn't know what was happening, but knew silence was warranted now.

The tepid night air hissed with steam rising from the bathhouse. The surrounding heat and the terror induced sweat dampened Chihiro's skin. Her teeth chattered in pure horror and she sensed unequivocally, this man was her key to survive this waking nightmare. _Hold my breath hold my breath. When?_ Chihiro clung to Haku, her eyes shrunk to pinpricks staring ahead of her. The situation didn't seem erotic any more.

"Take a deep breath. Hold it," he said, as if he'd read her mind.

Chihiro obeyed, inhaling a huge gulp of air, slapping her left hand over her mouth. Two steps later, they were on the planked bridge: passing the yellow mustard blob monster, countless gigantic obese fluffy chickens, an eerie black shadow wearing a white mask and demon like creatures with huge fangs, horns jutting from their heads wearing capes. This would have been a fantastic adventure if she wasn't so terrified to look around, allowed to ask questions and able to poke and prod at the creatures that belonged to a cartoon science experiment gone wrong.

Her lungs swelled threatening to explode as they walked on, when Haku tenderly whispered, "Hold on, we're almost there."

_Just another few steps _Chihiro thought stoically, hearing the countless steps reverberating on the wooden panels.

"Master Haku!" shouted a tiny green frog dressed in a blue belted top. "Where you been?" the frog questioned inquisitively, leaping into the air floating an inch from Chihiro's face.

_A talking frog!_ And her lungs burst in desperation, drinking in much needed oxygen. _SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!_

"What! A human!" hollered the frog in amazement, as if _Chihiro_ was the oddity in this place.

Haku's hand lashed upwards, magically encasing the midget frog into a glossy bubble, freezing the errant reptile in mid-air. "Let's go!" Haku snapped with irritation, his fingers binding around Chihiro's in a vice grip. With a swoosh, they were air bound, wind lashing at her face and clothes. They glided over the cobbled path passing the bridge, weaving between giggly, longhaired women, the wind tossing their kimonos up and exposing their painfully white legs.

Haku gruffly shoved Chihiro into a tiny wooden opening, slamming the gate shut for protection from the raucous exploding on the bridge behind them.

Haku wordlessly ushered Chihiro through a finely manicured rock garden, teeming with the sweet fragrance of cherry blossoms and hydrangeas. The plucking of ancient stringed instruments hummed melodiously from the room. Haku's arm wrapped over Chihiro lovingly. They squatted stealthily in the shadows of shrubs, until the rush of people visible through the windows disappeared.

"They know you're here," he said in a cool, melodious voice.

"I'm sorry I took a breath," Chihiro replied in shame. _It's entirely my fault. I'm so useless._

"No, Chihiro, you did very well," Haku lovingly cooed, his eyes gentle and caring, hugging her in assurance. At his embrace, time stopped, the intoxicating floral scents of the garden fell from the air, the darkness surrounding them changed to light. The only thing Chihiro could discern were Haku's eyes piercing hers. A chill of excitement shivered up her spine, her face instinctively craning up to his to…

"Listen carefully to what I tell you to do," he calmly explained, the intimate moment gone. "You can't stay here, they'll find you and you'll never get to rescue your parents. This is what you have to do: I'll create a diversion and you can escape." His eyes scanned her face as he spoke.

Chihiro's emotions screamed in mute grief at Haku's revelation. Was he going to abandon her? "No! Don't leave me, I don't want to be alone!" she begged, tugging at his grey top in desperation.

"I don't have any choice if you want to help your parents," he spoke sweetly, enfolding his silky hands over hers. He waited a moment for Chihiro's panic to subside. "This is what you have to do…"

"They did turn into pigs, I wasn't dreaming," Chihiro winced, unable to deny what Haku was inferring. Tears pricked at her eyes, threatening to gush forth, Haku's calming affection shining through the shadows doing nothing to stem the hurt of her situation.

His gaze dropped to her lips, his mouth edging inexorably to hers, and then he stopped, choosing to raise his right palm to her fevered forehead. "Don't worry," and she felt a soft heat permeate over her forehead. "Now, when things quiet down go out through the back gate…" He continued speaking and scenery popped into and raced through her mind, of flowers, steep wooden stairs, ending with a smoking boiler room. Haku had cast a memory spell giving her instructions to find a 'Kamajii' in the boiler room.

"Kamajii," Chihiro mimicked once he'd finished. Haku told her of the witch who ruled the bathhouse, _Yababa, Hubaba?_ She had to get a job he'd said; else, she could not stay here.

"Just keep asking for work," he continued firmly. "It'll be hard work, but you'll be able to stay here."

_It's not the work I'm worried about!_ Chihiro's bravery caved, her eyelids closed to the horror of her predicament, tears finally spilling over in hot, salty streaks. Her ears heard nothing but the blood and adrenaline gushing through her veins. "…then even Yubaba can't harm you," she caught the tail end of Haku's instructions.

"I have to go Chihiro, and don't forget, I'm your friend." His final squeeze of her hand constricted her chest with a crushing sadness as he stood to leave. Yet his words dried her tears and filled her heart with courage. _Only friends? Is this the last time I'll see you?_

"How did you know my name?" Chihiro asked forlornly, surprised.

"I've known you since you were very little. Good luck and whatever you do, don't make a sound." Then he was gone.

He entered into the glass shoji doors, taking with him Chihiro's first glimpse of something she'd never known, but had yearned for, for so long.

She buried her face in her knees, wishing everything about this night, except Haku, were nothing but an ugly dream: but it clearly wasn't. Chihiro held her head high, inhaled deeply with conviction and followed Haku's directions to the boiler room.

_When will I see you again Haku? _


	4. Lifts and Installment Plans

**Summary:** Chihiro visits Kamajii, gets a contract with Yu-baaba and is escorted away by Haku as in the movie. In this chapter, I've inserted my own scene, from when Haku and Chihiro get in the lift, until they arrive at the lower levels of the bathhouse.

**Rating for Chapter: **M/MA for adult themes and sexual references. You've been warned.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**3: Lifts and installment Plans**

"I've conquered those stairs down to hell! With a nose bleed, bruised butt and face to prove it." Chihiro protested to herself. She'd snuck into what looked like the entry to an industrial power plant with steam hissing menacingly out from its chimneys. Even in this place, there were darkened alleys similar to those in her world. Usually, Chihiro wouldn't venture into a dimly lit room, especially one where a foreboding shadow was dancing on the walls. However, there was no choice and Haku had said this Kamajii person would give her a job. "Come on, Chihiro! Don't be such a wimp!" She goaded herself before entering the roasting, fire lit passage.

Her first reaction was to flee as she turned the corner if that _thing_ on the wooden box was Kamajii. The man thing looked like a spider man in spandex. Only with no hair and not hot like the comic character. He just looked too much like a perverted old man with grandpa glasses, and extra arms with which to grope. The only thing missing was a trench coat! Was Haku serious about this guy? Chihiro felt faint to the stomach with fright having to approach the spider man.

"Haku? Now why would that boy do that?" Kamajii had eyed her suspiciously. Behind his black glasses, he inspected the human girl from head to toe. "Ah…I see. I can see how he might be thinking of some benefits." The sleazy looking man had replied when Chihiro pleaded for a job, dropping Haku's name as insurance. She'd followed Haku's instructions, precisely.

"Huh?" Chihiro replied, confused at the comment.

Everything was blurring. She couldn't grasp how that little bit of coal weighed more than a gigantic watermelon when she'd attempted to help fuel the furnace, basically scorching off her face. If she were in a normal state of mind, the squealing black powder puffs would have been gorgeous. But nothing seemed enjoyable in this world, except him.

Then a loud mouth woman named Rin crawled through the tiny entryway. _What's with the red lipstick? _She had thought. Rin was loud in lipstick color and vocal chords. Kamajii introduced Chihiro as his granddaughter, told Rin she needed job, and asked her to take Chihiro to Yubaba. Loud mouth lady scolded her for not thanking Kamajii for 'sticking his neck out' for her as she'd left. Was her presence in this world that troublesome? She didn't know but was in no state of mind to think about asking. She just knew she needed a job.

"You wanna lose your nose?" Rin had chided when Chihiro stuck her nose outside the lift compartment to scan the surroundings below. As the lift ascended higher and higher, the surroundings transformed from stale wood, to opulent gold furnishes and lavishly lacquered panels.

"_Oh please, let this be a dream._" Chihiro had wished until reality bit, and she was magically whisked through marbled hallways, flying past enormous Ming vases, promptly thrown on her face into a lush Persian rug. The next thing she knew, a bulbous headed grandma had her sign a contract and took her name, leaving her only with the kanji 'Sen'. She was seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing in the confines of the Victorian style study. She just remembered the importance of getting a job. Then, the walls of insanity fell away when he appeared.

"You called for me?" Haku stood at attention, subservient to Yubaba.

Bigheaded grandma Yubaba said something. Odd, how Chihiro heard and saw nothing but Haku in this place. Even the nightmarish, bodiless heads bobbing around faded to nothing. He was her knight in silken armor.

"Right, what's your name?" He turned to her. Ice cold. Impenetrable.

_Why is he pretending not to know my name?_ "Chi…oh…It's Sen."

"Ok, Sen. Follow me." He walked ahead of her, closing the doors of the lifts behind them.

Chihiro knitted her brows together, distressed. Was this the same man who'd rescued her before? Blood pumped in her brain and she screamed inwardly at his aloofness. His back had been to her since they'd left Yubaba's presence.

"Haku….err…" _Please say something._

"Don't talk to me…and address me as _Master_ Haku," he clipped acerbically.

Chihiro gasped in shock at the callous dismissal. It chilled her to the bone, observing his countenance. Trembling in resignation, Chihiro slid to the far corner of the lift. She felt used, cheap. He'd toyed with her then discarded her once he'd had his fun. She hugged herself, biting back the stinging in her eyes. _Typical man. He just used me!_

Haku spoke in a distant voice. "Don't you think I deserve something for my troubles, Chihiro?" He stood, staring sightlessly at the lift doors.

"Haku…I-I don't know what you mean. Did I do something wrong?" Chihiro rasped, broken in spirit and heart. "Why are you like this?"

His back was a fortress to her. A sullen, unwavering quiet hung in the air. Her question had no response.

Chihiro mustered up the last ounce of her courage, digging her nails into her palms. _I might not be the world's brightest or most beautiful person, but I do have pride! _

"Fine! So, you've had your fun with me. I get it! Leave me alone, then! I don't need your help and I don't need you!" Chihiro fumed balefully, shoving him aside. She tugged the bronze lever of the lift to escape from the son of a bitch! She didn't care where it stopped, or how. Just as long as it did, to free her from the suddenly claustrophobic expanse of the lift. "Get out of my way!" Heave as she might, though, the bronze knob refused to move. "You son of a b-!" she spat vehemently. "Did I even need to get that job or was that part of your game too?"

An iron grip snared her elbow and she was swung back against the elevator wall, the breath knocked out of her. "I said, don't you think I deserve something for my troubles, Chihiro?" Haku's eyes raked over every inch of her face, ending predatorily at her mouth.

"I-I don't know what you mea…" Her heart thumped erratically, dazed at Haku's ferociousness. Reality sank in. Chihiro grasped the situation. Haku had slammed her to the back of the lift, holding her in place with the pressure of his taught, hard body. Every inch of his flesh burned and pulsed through the thin material of his clothes. Regaining a shred of dignity and self-consciousness, Chihiro pounded on his chest. "Let go of me! I said I don't need your help. I don't need _you_!" She screamed bitterly, hot streaks coursing down her cheeks. "Let go!"

"I'm sorry, but I have no intention of letting you go."

"_You conceited son of a-!_" She howled in mortification.

His mouth crushed her words into silence. Teeth, lips, gums all surged greedily against the unwilling lips she'd clamped shut. Her fingers dug deep in his forearms, pushing in vain to get him off her. Her legs kicked wildly, only making way for Haku to wedge himself between her thighs. Realizing her mistake, she opened her mouth to scream in horror, only to allow the surge of Haku's tongue to slide inside her mouth.

Her were eyes closed to the horror of Haku, until his liquid intrusion forced them open in dismay. "_Hmmppp_," she shrieked, almost choking from the veracity of his kiss. The unrelenting pressure of his mouth forced her to open more, sucking the very air out of her lungs.

Haku's almond shaped eyes were narrowed, locking with her wide and bewildered ones. His emerald eyes glinted shamelessly, lustfully, immobilizing Chihiro's retaliation. His hands gripped her wrists and wrapped her arms around his neck. Then moving down to grip her backside, he slid her up the wall. As a finishing move, he grabbed her thighs and roped them around his narrow waist. A guttural rumble emanated from his throat, his eyes closed and he began to savor his feminine prey.

Chihiro's resistance melted, yielding to the dizzying sensation, forgetting the bitterness seconds earlier. His lips were preternaturally moist, searing. His tongue was delicate, rimming languidly over her teeth before teasing Chihiro to join the intimate lovers' embrace. Instinctively, her limbs coiled tighter around him yearning to know every inch of his body.

His hands bit harder into her backside, heaving her higher against the lift wall. Chihiro squealed in shock at his aggressiveness. His mouth slid from hers, his teeth tugged on her lower lip. He pulled away for air, leaving Chihiro's mouth feeling naked, desolate and wanting.

"_H-Haku,_" she gasped for air, her fingers shaking behind his neck. "Is something wrong?" She asked in a mist of lust, confusion and the anger he'd stopped so abruptly.

He smiled apologetically, tenderly brushing the stray locks of hair from her forehead. "Even if you don't need me, I need you Chihiro," he declared earnestly. Chihiro's heart burst as he kissed away the lingering tears from the corner of her eyes.

"Haku," she hugged his head to her, pressing her shaking lips to his forehead. His mouth left a heated trail across her collarbone, nipping sweetly on the flesh beneath it. "Ouch!" she cried at the sting. "You _bit _me!" _What's with this guy?_

His only response was to cup her face with his hands and claim an achingly tender kiss. Happy he'd tortured her enough, he smiled against her lips, only too happy to take more. Their lips opened to each other, teeth touching, tongues twining in pleasure. Haku's mouth dropped angel kisses along her cheek, teasing her ear, biting playfully on the lobe of her ear. Chihiro pursed her lips, suppressing the pleasure wanting to burst forth. A hot, burning sensation settled at the nape of her neck as Haku nuzzled, nipped and twirled his tongue, delightfully torturing his prey.

Without warning, she felt hot fingers snaking up her ribs. Her hands clawed uncontrollably at Haku's shoulders unable to hold back the groan, only to feel his long fingers pushing into her bra. "Haku!" Chihiro croaked, taken by surprise, feeling a little ambushed with this unfamiliar maneuver. She was still relatively inexperienced when it came to men.

Her hands shot down to save her 'virginal' breasts from Haku's seduction, only to have him push it away. The balls of his finger dug playfully into her flesh, kneading the sinewy softness. "Haku," Chihiro choked in desperation, her lingering modesty fraying to a bare thread. Haku smothered her protests with kiss after kiss after devastating kiss. He caught her raised nipple between his thumb and index finger, pinching and twirling the sensitive bud between the balls of his fingers.

Delirious, pleasured to the point of collapse, her hands groped under his top, craving the feel of his musky scented skin. Her nails dug into his shoulder blades. She'd forever thought the verb 'explode' employed by so many romance novelists was ridiculous but _oh my _didn't she understand it now!

The pressure of his hand on her breast, and the delectable pain as he enjoyed her, left Chihiro no option but to tighten her legs around him, her thighs aching at the effort.

In return, Haku pressed his torso harder to her, wanting to feel every curve and feminine mound of her body. His hips shifted, his excitement pressed between the apex of her legs. He growled, gently running his teeth over her collarbone, making her cry out in surrender to his assault on her senses.

A bolt of panic woke Chihiro from the blissful detainment, aghast at the hard protrusion pressed _there_. Haku was rhythmically grinding against her, the momentum driving Chihiro to an unknown height of awareness. "_Oh-my-god_…" her fingers dug deeper into his back, unable to control her excitement. The intensity of the grinding persisted, promising a lovers' ending Chihiro, suddenly wasn't ready for, she suddenly realized. Instinctively, she released her leg lock to escape the climax of their embrace. She didn't want their first time to be this way. She muttered into his insatiable, unyielding, explorative kiss. Fighting with her own wanton desire, Chihiro freed her lips to crane her face up to the ceiling, finding a haze of glowing lights. Haku's mouth stole from her lips to her neck, snuggling contently under chin. _I must be crazy to want to stop this! _she wailed privately.

At last, her modesty gave her strength to escape the most erotic lift ride of her life, and she shoved him off with one mighty heave. In an instant, his hands and lips reeled backwards, leaving Chihiro to slide inelegantly to the ground. She sat in a passionately bruised heap, deflated, arms limp to her side. She flipped her gaze up to his, a mischievous, yet shy sparkle dancing in her eyes.

Haku laughed in curiosity. He ran his hand through his perfectly set hair, panting, ravenous to reap more of his rewards. "Chihiro? What's wrong?"

"I-I've never done anything like this before…" Chihiro straightened herself up; pulling her t-shirt down to cover the bra that she'd so wanted to show off. _I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined it'd get its first viewing like this!_

"Really? You certainly fooled me!" Haku teased provocatively, helping her to her feet. "Can I be the exception?" He stole another kiss from her cherry swollen lips. "You're sweeter, and lovelier than you look."

Choking on her emotion, Chihiro clung to him. "Haku…I don't understand…One moment you're ice, the next you…"

He cupped her chin in his fingers, his eyes revealing everything to her. "This is the way it has to be, for now."

The full ramifications of Haku's words dawned on Chihiro. She blinked wildly, forcing the tears back, slowly nodding in acceptance. _So, my presence in this place is trouble._ He wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes with the ball of his thumbs, gently bending down to kiss the remainder away.

"We can't have the help fraternizing with the management," Haku winked, pinching her backside in mischief.

"Ouch!" she cried.

"The lift will stop soon. Assume the position," he ordered mischievously.

"_What?_ Not here, Haku. No, no, no..." Chihiro backed away in horror flattening herself to the wall.

His lilting laugh echoed in the lift. He rubbed the back of his neck with the palm of his hands, staring back at her. "I meant, get behind me, in the position we were in when we got in the lift." He arched one of his elegant brows in disbelief at her reaction. "What did you think I meant?" He grinned impishly, waiting for her reply.

_Damn him!_ "Oh, s-sorry I thought…nothing." Chihiro pursed her lips closed trying not to die of embarrassment.

"By the way, Chihiro, that was only the first installment of my reward. I intend to collect in full. With interest for late payments," he stated authoritatively, just as the doors of the lifts opened at their destination.

* * *

Wow!! Thanks to everyone who were INCREDIBLY wonderful to leave such kind reviews. A BIG shout out to readers who put this H-Fic on theirs Favs and alerts. Love you all but NOT in a hentai way of course!

_**DISCLAIMER: I didn't create SA, write or animate the movie or create the characters. I'm borrowing the characters to write for fun. Any dialogue you recognise in this FF is taken from the movie, as this FF is set in the movie verse. Everything else is mine. I have no money so it's useless taking me to court. 'Nuff said. **_


	5. The Garden of Regret

**Summary:** As in the movie, Haku leads Chihiro down to the lower levels of the bathhouse and assigns her to Rin. In the morning, Haku takes Chihiro to see her parents. I've melded the dialogue of the movie with my own for this chapter. I've inserted my own scene at the end; the second part of the scene is coming in the next chapter.

**Rating for Chapter: **M for suggestive adult themes and sexual references.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**4: The Garden of Regrets**

"I promise to work very hard," Chihiro spoke with humility following Haku's queue, trying to quench the memory of the fiery tango of their bodies' minutes ago in the lift.

He'd led her down to the lower levels of the bathhouse after their tryst. Clothes hung on makeshift lines in every direction, and people that didn't look like people pointed and gaped at her. The smell of mildew tinged with sweat staled in the air. The workers wore traditional Japanese outfits Chihiro had only seen at seasonal festival and shrines. Walking among the staff, she was indeed a tall poppy compared to the men and women who were all shorter than Chihiro: all, towering 5 feet 4 inches of her. If she weren't so mollified, the insults "stink" thrown at her from every which way would have earned the speaker a black eye. But she was scared, exhausted, confused and sexually aroused despite herself: a volatile combination in any circumstance. None of the workers wanted her as their staff. Sadly, it didn't vex Chihiro in the slightest; she was persistently the un-coolest of the un-cool group at school. _Why would it be different in this world_? she mocked privately.

"…roast her, boil her, do whatever you want," flippantly coming from Haku's mouth wasn't so easy to swallow. For an unknown reason, she trusted his judgement, especially since he seemed to have authority over the staff.

"Sen, get going!" he ordered with an air of command, leaving her with the loud lipstick woman, Rin.

"Why are you picking on me? You owe me one Haku, do you hear me?" Rin yelled after Haku, contemptuous, unlike the others. Her female instincts reacted and of all the times to be jealous! Chihiro wondered if Haku was currently seeing other female workers. Her eyes followed his lithe figure until he vanished into the darkness of the hallway. _Of course, he must have someone. Some__**ones,**__ more like it._

"I can't believe you pulled it off! You're such a dope I was really worried! Now keep on your toes and if you need anything, ask me. Okay?" Rin's tone altered to one of concern and affection of a big sister, stopping to talk in the confine of the shared bedroom.

The green-eyed monster reared its ugly head again as Chihiro seethed, intently scrutinizing the lanky Rin, and what the woman meant to Haku. She was too familiar with him. "Rin, you know Haku?"

"Yeah, what about him?" Rin replied in a blasé tone, rummaging for a change of clothes for Chihiro.

"There aren't two of them, _are_ there?"wanting to draw out more information. _Why am I being crazy jealous about this guy?_

"Two of them? I can barely stand one! He's Yubaaba's henchmen. Don't trust anything he says."

Taken aback, Chihiro's spirit tore viciously at hearing Rin's words. _He's that out of proportioned bird-woman-thing's henchman? Wait, no. I can't believe he's bad. He saved me from her; showed me how to get a job. Although, why would Rin lie?_ Chihiro's stomach knotted in disgust at letting Haku the _thing's_ henchman, have her so completely. She shook her head dismally, biting back the tears, but she had no one to blame except herself, recollecting her token resistance, yielding to his lips, his hands... The revelation and regret twisted her stomach painfully, leaving Chihiro crouched in a foetal position in front of Rin; silently sobbing in a personal shameful hell. _What must Haku think of me! Why does he affect me the way he does?_ There was no way in hell she'd allow a stranger to do what he did to her in any lift back in the real world. Why was it a double standard for this stranger, then?_ Mum, Dad…I wish we'd never come here._

Rin fell for Chihiro's "I don't feel so good" story, promptly showing her to the _onsen_ where Chihiro scrubbed in vain, scouring Haku's tattooed touch from her body, to wash his sweet taste from her mouth. Yet their encounter refused to fade from her mind, dissipating only when Chihiro slipped into a disturbed sleep.

--x--

Early mist circled the bathhouse, visible from where Chihiro slept between the other workers, tightly packed like sardines. A shaft of dawn broke through the towels covering the window where Chihiro lay. She woke, shivering, baffled and dazed as to where she was. _Thank heavens it was just a dream!_ Chihiro rolled onto her side, giggling with relief, until a sting under her collarbone reminded her of the reality of her situation. She craned her head up to find a tiny red mark. "Oh crap! Haku! It's not a dream!" she whispered in calm horror. Her fingers traced the purple red teeth marks. "He bit me! The lift! _Ohhh-mama-mia,_" Chihiro groaned into her hands, banging her head back to the pillow. "Shit shit shit! What was I thinking?"

The entry door slid open. Chihiro froze mid panic, discerning padding steps over the futons, approaching her direction. She tucked her head under the blanket like a cowering turtle.

A slight pressure pressed the blanket covering her shoulder. "Meet me at the bridge. I'll take you to your parents," came Haku's hypnotic lilting voice. Her angst, self-repugnance and agitation scattered at the simple sound of his voice. Hesitantly she plucked the courage to face Haku, but he'd disappeared like an enigma.

The wooden staircase leading down to the boiler room, the crowded confines of the night before, all sat barren and lonely. The bathhouse was asleep like its occupants at this early hour. Kamajii, the perverted looking grandfather, was snoring contentedly when Chihiro snuck into the boiler room to find her shoes.

"Today must be a better day. Those lovely black soot balls actually seem cute!" Chihiro smiled running out to the bridge, an inner fire glowing despite the chill gripping her weary limbs. Maybe Rin didn't know Haku that well? Or maybe they dated once and Haku jilted Rin, so she wanted to badmouth him? Whatever it was, Chihiro longed to see her parents and if Haku could help, then she didn't care. _Why should I care what he's like anyway? I'll be gone soon enough._ She radiated positivity, sure she'd be back in her own world in no time, and sure Haku was soon to be a memory.

Chihiro scrambled through the door leading to the bridge, finding a menacing black apparition wearing a white pantomime mask hovering at the bridge. He was dissimilar to all the guests Chihiro had seen, a benign ghostly figure. Nevertheless, she bowed to him in respect and ran, disinterested in anything else but meeting Haku.

The floral scents and sweet dewy air welcomed Chihiro's arrival to the garden, blooming with blissful respite from the stale air of the lower bathhouse. Haku appeared from nowhere and her heart secretly sighed seeing him in the light of day. Lovely, flawless, beautiful: _did he actually feel anything for her or was this just a fling for him?_ Chihiro asked herself, drowning in his regal magnificence. _Is he a normal man?_

"Follow me." Not even a good morning or how are you. He was once more cold, sphinx-like. "We don't have much time. If you're found here you'll be turned into a pig yourself," he explained, effortlessly weaving between the profusion of blooms. Chihiro on the other hand lumbered breathlessly after him. "You must never come here without me, understand?" he ordered as they swept down the knoll to two barn houses.

"I understand," Chihiro puffed, racing after him. A gentleman would have helped, or at least offered his hand. Not Haku, nothing was gentle about him: a raging fire one minute, walking ice the next.

--x--

The stench was pungent, ugly to the nose, as Chihiro ran to the two swine Haku pointed out. "Mum, Dad, are you all right? It's me, Sen! Hey, wake up! Mom, Dad!" Chihiro's voice echoed through the barn. The countless swine slept on. The two before her snoozed, oblivious to her emphatic pleas, their springy tails coiled tightly. A lazy flick of a pig ear was the singular movement in the structure: her parents were pink, plump, sleeping, glorious and ignorant to their fates. "What's wrong with them, are they sick?"

"No, they ate too much, they're sleeping it off," Haku stated, devoid of emotions. "They don't remember being human. So look hard. It's up to you to remember which ones they are," he instructed before he led her back to the gardens.

The corn, cabbage patch and snow peas stretched to the skies, creating a verdant wall of protection veiling them from prying eyes. Chihiro's mind reeled in grief, her eyes stung with the image of the pigs that were once her parents and the stench they wallowed in. They were gluttonous animals, punished for eating that food! "I told them not to eat it! If they weren't so greedy we wouldn't be here!" Chihiro bawled, sobs attacking her body, her face buried in her knees as she crouched on the ground. "We shouldn't have gone into that tunnel!" She was completely disregarding Haku's presence.

"Here are your clothes. Hide them." Haku handed Chihiro her t-shirt and summer shorts Rin had taken from her.

"I thought they'd been thrown away." Chihiro said, teary but thankful something of her former world remained. They'd been cleaned, pressed and perfumed of lilies.

"You'll need them to get home." The winter fell from Haku's face, his eyes warming to pools of tenderness, his dark eyes lightening as the sun animated the morning.

Tucked in her clothes was a farewell card. Her name 'Chihiro' was scribbled on it: how quickly her own moniker was slipping from her memory. "Chihiro," she read it, as if for the first time, every syllable foreign.

"That's how Yubaaba controls you, by stealing your name, so hold on to that card, keep it hidden. And while you're here, you must call yourself Sen…" he paused, staring sightlessly into the distance. "I've tried everything to remember mine," his tone and expression were unexpectedly despondent and lamenting.

"You can't remember your name?" Chihiro asked, incredulous.

"No, but for some reason, I remember yours." Haku smile reached his eyes, colour blooming over his alabaster skin. His radiance reduced Chihiro to a puddle, regardless of the plight gripping her in this supernatural world. "Here you go, eat this. You must be hungry." Haku unbound a leafy parcel, handing her an _onigiri_. "I put a spell on it so it will give you back your strength. Just eat it," he insisted kindly.

She was starving. Her body had been deprived of food since lunch yesterday. Her brain needed nourishment, her body begged for fuel. Chihiro wolfed down the bland rice balls, weeping, chomping down, unable to taste anything with her wooden tongue. "Have some more, you'll be all right," Haku comforted, handing her the last _onigiri_.

"Were all those pigs humans, Haku? Trapped here?" Where did all those pigs come from? Maybe she could find a way to free them, too.

He intoned heavily and nodded. "Yes, Sen. Most won't be as lucky as you and your parents."

"I should have eaten the food, too! But all I thought about was dieting! I should have eaten; then I'd be with my parents, happy and sleeping! Not here, like this…" Chihiro lost her stoic bravado, snivelling violently. "I have no one here. I'll never survive here! I'm alone and my parents are PIGS! PIGS!" She wailed, the pent up denial, menace and hopelessness of her situation unbearable.

A strong arm wrapped over Chihiro's hunched shoulders. Haku wiped a stray rice grain from her wet cheeks with the ball of his thumb. He hugged her closer, planting a kiss to her head. "You have me, here, to hold you. I'll protect you from harm."

"Thank you for everything Haku," she stammered, indebted. "I-I, w-we don't know each other Haku, I, we shouldn't have, last night in the lift…" Her words fell off in humiliation. Shamed at the ease with which she'd dropped her guard of feminine modesty with him. "I'm so sorry."

"Well, it _did_ make you forget your problems, didn't it?" he joked affectionately, drawing her closer. "I certainly enjoyed myself."

"That's not funny, Haku! Is that what this is? Am I a fun thing to you?" Her slippery grip on sanity was lost, surrendering to frenzied histrionics. "I made a mistake. I was confused. I gave you the wrong idea! I…"

"It's too late Chihiro. I'm thankful you made a _mistake,_ **IF** that's what it was. I have no intention of letting you correct it, either. I did exactly what I wanted. I feel no regret. Now, calm down, tell me what happened last night." Haku coyly diverted the conversation, soothing the hysterical Chihiro. It worked, sending Chihiro into a flurry of jumbled words.

"…and I landed in a face plant on the carpet and my butt was up in the air!" Chihiro grimaced with chagrin, recapping the entire story of how she landed in Yubaaba's office. She wiped the hot streaks from her eyes.

A dreamy, salacious sparkle shone in his eyes. "Hmm…I can do that position," he said, stroking her head nestled against his chest.

"Haku! Quit it! We don't know each other! You probably think I'm easy peasy because…b-but I'm not like that!" Chihiro stuttered in frustration. The fairy tales she'd read never told of Prince Charming being a totally perverted beefcake! Moreover, was _he_ supposed to be her Prince Charming? NO WAY! Everything was too surreal and wild in this world: like Haku!

"I know who you are, Chihiro. I don't think you're _easy_. I've known you since you were very little. You've blossomed; we're adults. It's perfect because we can have a lot more fun." He scowled mischievously, tilting her chin up for a kiss.

"You're crazy! We've never met a-and you caught me off guard, y-you trapped me in the lift! I was defenceless, vulnerable! I'm strong and better today. You can't seduce me even if you tried!" She bit out defensively, pushing away, stomping back to the gate. _Presumptuous prick!_ There was no way she'd go _there_ with him again.

Deftly, gracefully, Haku moved to block the way by her third step. "Really? Well, _I_ don't play hard to get. If I want someone, I'll have them." His stance was menacing, looming above her, resolute in his conviction.

Chihiro glared daggers of disbelief at his revoltingly astute insinuations. "Are you implying _I'm_ playing hard to get? You arrogant jackass! Do you think I'll melt like chocolate in your palms like everyone else? Well, I'm NOT interested in you. I'm with you SIMPLY to save my parents. AND you can't have me!" she raged with venom. "GET LOST!" she bellowed to hell and back.

"I can't get lost; I know my way around here too well to get lost. _And_ you want me, you're just hiding it." He declared light heartedly, yet omni-potent. "If last night was any indication," he teased.

"_**!!**_" she huffed in exasperation, exhaling through clenched teeth at his audacity. "AHH! Get OUT of my way!" Chihiro jostled past his lithe, perfectly proportioned stature, only to stumble over Haku's thonged foot he'd accidentally on purpose stuck out, tripping her towards the grass, catching her fall, conveniently landing on top of her.

"I like being on top the first time." His eyes flashed wickedly, his lips hovering over hers.

"Get off me!" she screamed red faced, desperate not to be tempted by the intoxicating herb musk aroma of his body. "I mean it! I don't want this! Or you!" she spat with irritation, twitching as the dewy grass soaked into her clothes.

"You're lying. I can smell your pheromones, your desire. I can feel the heat your body exudes. You want me." He blatantly countered with steeled confidence. "If you kiss me, I'll forgive you for telling naughty lies."

Chihiro's brain screamed in protest at the feral hormones rushing her veins. Exhilaration, anticipation mingled with scandalous mortification. "Y-you're wrong! I'm just h-hot!" she lied, convincing nobody, especially herself.

"Yes, you are _h-o-t_." Haku's eyes tapered, glinting with satisfaction, having pinned down his prey. In a flash, Haku bound Chihiro's wrists over her head, rendering her arms immobile with one hand no matter how hard she fought for freedom. His lips touched Chihiro's trembling lips with ferocious tenderness, taunting, his tongue lightly tracing her shaking lips. "I gave you breakfast. Now I'm hungry for mine."


	6. The Hungry Dragon

**Summary:** A continuation from the previous chapter when Chihiro is trying to get back to the bathhouse after Haku takes her to visit her parents. Haku accuses Chihiro of lying and gives her a chance to make penance – with a kiss – but she refuses to give in.

**Rating for Chapter: **M/MA for adult themes and explicit sexual references. _YOU'VE BEEN WARNED._

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**5****: The Hungry Dragon**

"If you kiss me now, I might forgive you. If you don't, I will punish you for lying to me," Haku promised too sensually, his mouth hovering over hers.

Chihiro wasn't going to be caught lying, but wouldn't give Haku the satisfaction of winning, either. They hadn't even gone on a date for heaven's sake and he wanted to make a meal of her! It was too much for a young woman unexpectedly trapped in a freakish world, only to be pinned under a freakishly perfect dream-man-thing.

She was incensed Haku seemed to predict her every move, and infuriatingly aroused despite her resistance. Chihiro's eyes stared out of her scarlet face, peering up at Haku's ethereal beauty, haloed by his silken hair. Why did it constantly end this way between them? _NOT this time!_ She determined. No matter how good a kisser he was, no matter how holy-hell-hot he was, no matter how much her body begged for his. She'd always imagined sweet and tender moments with that special someone to be sweet and tender. Not like this, where she lay splayed on her back in a vegetable patch under an exotic Lothario, who certainly was something rather special. This situation required de-sexualizing post haste. _Think, Chihiro, think!_

"All right. If you let me go, I'll find the kitchens and cook you breakfast. I'm great in the kitchen. I'll make you a breakfast you'll never forget. Now get off me!" she stuttered, her body melded so intimately with his, she could hear her heart out beat his, perpetually controlled in rhythm.

"Hmm, sounds good. And you _will_ give me a breakfast I'll never forget," Haku rasped hungrily, giving her an Eskimo kiss. "No need to cook either. I prefer you in the raw."

"AH! That's not what I meant, Haku! You're twisting my words. I meant I want to go to the kitchen and make you breakfast!" Chihiro's pupils reduced to pinpricks, knowing defeat was inevitable in her current position.

"Grr, adventurous, aren't we? We can do breakfast in the kitchen another time. I'll have you right here today, thank you," Haku whispered, tracing her lips with his index finger, tilting his head like a bird to observe her as he did so.

_Holy hell!_ Why did she have to be so turned on by Haku and so turned off at herself for being turned on! "For the last time GET OFF! In my world this is called SEXUAL HARASSMENT!" she spat out of nervousness.

"Yes, in this world too. _You're_ harassing me with your sexuality." He smirked predatorily. "How am I to suppose to resist your seductions, Chihiro?" Indolently, he began smothering her mouth. "Do you know how delicious you look speckled with rice? You're my little _onigiri_. Now, for the last time stop wriggling around. Can't you feel how you're sexually harassing me?" Indeed, Haku's morning pop-up-and-say-hello was saying good morning very loudly and physically, pressed hard over her upper thigh. It obviously wanted an introduction.

She gulped hard, wanting him but not wanting him. Her legs pinned under his, her arms pinned over her head, and soon her mouth would suffer the same fate. However, being the slow learner she was, and forgetting the lesson from last night, Chihiro opened her mouth in a half-hearted protest and timidity; again falling for Haku's trick to slip into the inner warmth of mouth. He licked the inside of her cheeks, moving to tangle his tongue with hers. Chihiro's eyes involuntarily closed to her paradise lost, responding to the pressure of his lips, receptive to everything he wanted. Her brain struggled to recall what her resistance was about in the first place. Playing hard to get was getting hard to play and she certainly couldn't get why she was playing hard to get anymore. She just didn't want to promote herself as a smorgasbord for any guy to eat off, even if it was Haku. And if she allowed him to do this, didn't it mean she was easy?

Her arms went limp from fatigue, acknowledging the fight was futile under his grip. Maybe she'd enjoy herself just a little before shoving him off, she reasoned. _How can I even get one word out in indignation if he kidnapped my tongue and very breath anyway? _was her other excuse. Her writhing body stilled under his, his hips anchoring her down. Her legs stilled, yet her toes wiggled, responding to his burning, liquid kisses.

Haku purred, literally, the guttural resonance sending hedonistic sensations penetrating her body. His fingers worked as possessed devils tugging on the side ties holding her top together, yanking the top apart to expose the flimsy blue undergarment, he tore it away in one savage motion. Chihiro was grateful her expensive bra was in the room or else he'd have needlessly destroyed it. _But, really_… she thought. _Do I really give a crap at this moment?_

There was no escape, even if she wanted to. Chihiro's toes and fingers curled tighter, feeling the heightened pressure of his body on hers, reacting to every single toned, heated inch. The sweet winds caressed the naked skin he'd exposed, goose bumps rising to the lingering chill. Haku's hand re-acquainted itself with the same breast from the night before, the sudden warmth of his skin evoking an involuntary groan from Chihiro. This time, his hand was more vigorous, squeezing, kneading her flesh together, and cupping her into a mound ready for his mouth. His mouth slipped from her utterly satiated lips, snaking along her slender neck, his tongue swirling down to the fleshy mound that he took hungrily into his eager mouth.

Chihiro balled her hands in quiet restraint, explosive delight and wonderment at the insanely erotic pleasure spreading through her, caused by the intense, hot, fluid sensuality of Haku's mouth lightly suckling on her nipple, while his fingers kneaded the surrounding softness.

Her resistance was melting faster than the throbbing need of her more private region. Chihiro bit down on her lips, suppressing the sigh threatening to betray her final shard of struggle. She rolled her head to one side, dazed, seeing but not seeing. The snow peas peered back at her, watching her be deliriously ravaged. She was oblivious to everything but the thunderous hammering of her heart, the rushing of blood to her brain at Haku's 'punishment'.

Her eyes hazily rolled down to Haku, needing to observe the fiery marauder torturing and gratifying her with un-wanted pleasure. His chin length green black hair splayed over her pale naked skin. His eyes were closed in concentration, suckling like a starved child. He took her nipple between his teeth, gently nipping and grinding. The delirious stinging pressure blinded her senses like the sun beaming down on the green wheat grass blinded her vision. The snow peas, the corn and cabbage patch were voyeurs to their very public private moment. _Have I even gotten one word of protest out yet?_

"Haku," she said exasperated, frantic to retain a crumb of decorum. The locales of their embraces were deteriorating. Last night a lift, and now a vegetable patch in broad daylight! He bit his teeth harder on her nipple and Chihiro cried out in shock and delicious pain. He proceeded by lifting up his head higher over her chest, taking her breast in his mouth, lowering his head, raising it again; she shrieked each time, fanning her fingers, kicking her pinned down feet. She crossed her ankles, twisted her toes together at the fevered erotic onslaught, arching her back into Haku's mouth, unconsciously demanding more. Haku lowered his head a final time, swirling his tongue round the aroused bud and, by now, happily sore nipple. Chihiro inhaled in relief that the tumultuous assault was over, panting uncontrollably. Apparently, you can get too much of a good thing.

His eyes snaked up from her breast to meet her desperate, disorientated fawn eyes, hitching up a corner of his mouth in a sly smile. An animal satisfied after devouring its meal, his lips glistened, swollen and red. "You're right. You are good at breakfast." He smirked, licking his lips before returning to his breakfast, drawing her other breast into mouth.

"Haku…" she gasped in hopelessness. "Someone's going to see us!" Helpless as his mouth plundered one breast, his free hand enjoyed the other. This was too fast, too soon, too…_ridiculously_ _good!_

Anxious yet feverishly pleasured, Chihiro attempted a different tactic to save herself from herself, and anyone or any_t__hing_ that might stumble onto their morning victuals. She rolled onto her side in a last act before _she_ lost control and started tearing off Haku's clothes, and ate _him_ for breakfast. She succeeded! His unquenchable mouth released her brightly pink, wet, blissfully devastated breasts. He lost balance and fell off her. Chihiro struggled upwards in a flash, jerking her top closed. _Oh My God! What's he done to them? They're HUGE, RED and bee stung! _Chihiro winced inwardly, looking down and witnessing Haku's after math.

"Hey, I haven't had my fill of breakfast yet," he cooed intimately into her ear, sitting up behind her, roping her in his arms from behind. He bit the shell of her ear, stealing kisses to the corner of her mouth, his hands adroitly darting under her top to make friends with her breasts. "They're mine, you're mine," he growled possessively, craning his head over her shoulder, pulling her back against him. His legs wrapped around her.

"Haku…" Chihiro simpered, her hands no longer obeying her brain, instead, stroking the side of his face drawing him closer. "You're going to kill me…with your _punishments_." Her logic, modesty and decorum jumped ship and she leaned in for a kiss, surrendering to his sweet, eager lips. She did deserve the punishment after all, right?

"In the naughtiest way," he murmured happily into her lips, one hand snaking down the side of her ribs, the other quite content playing with her passionately bruised and tender nipple.

"Haku…" She cautioned, clamping her sweaty, heated hand over his hunting hand. "Where are you going?" She whispered, unwilling to halt her kisses.

"South…" He abandoned her achingly tender kiss, tasting the nape of her neck.

Immediately, her hand stilled his. "N-not here, not like this…" she begged, her voice fragile, her breath shallow. The involuntary pulsating and burning between her legs petrified her.

For once, Haku complied, playfully squeezing her pinked nipple between his index finger and thumb in revenge. "All right, Chihiro, I understand. I'm quite happy with the twins," he chuckled into her neck. "For now."

_Thank you, Haku. _"You play dirty," complained Chihiro weakly, re-tying the straps of her top with trembling, nervous hands as her brain hollered _God he wanted to go down here!_ Haku, stubborn, kept his hand close to his 'friends'.

"Yes, I like to play with you, especially dirty. It's unfair the affect you have on me."

Chihiro giggled, pushing herself off from between his legs, very shocked to find her knees wobbling like jelly. She wasn't quite ready for him to go down there yet. _Shit! I don't even know his last name for Christ sake and he wants to go south?_ She screamed privately. "And breakfast is over," she grinned, bending down to kiss his forehead recovering a little strength in her legs. "I have to go, Haku. Rin will be looking for me. Besides how can I be sure that you don't ambush other female staff in the gardens?" Chihiro teased as a parting shot, brushing the dirt from her the seat of her pants. _How will I explain these grass stains to Rin! _

"I don't." Haku lay on his side, leaning on one elbow, enjoying the vision of Chihiro brushing herself off. "I prefer a seaside seduction. So do the women." He said suavely, coolly. Too compelling and convincingly, acting the part of a chauvinistic Lothario; but he was far from that.

"I see." Her insecurities destroyed her shred of self-confidence, seeing Haku's eyes glint with contempt and arrogance. _YOU'RE AN IDIOT CHIHIRO! _She could and should never have believed any man, especially one as sublime as he, could care for her. Her lids dropped to hide the hurt in her brown eyes turning blueAre you saying her eyes are changing color? Or that she's getting teary-eyed? Because it seems like the former.

, her smile barely masking the quiet death in her heart. The hot sun was suddenly cold in her blue sky. "Thank you for being honest with me." She straightened herself up, cleared her throat, feeling soiled and used again. "Thank you for taking me to my parents." She hurried up the path, shaking with every step, towards the edge of the garden, totally missing Haku's surprised, agonized expression to her reaction at his joke. _Reality is the best slap in the face, isn't it Chihiro?_ She spat with venom to herself. _You're such a shit head!_

Invisible, gentle claws coiled around her, freezing her movements. Her brain and pride needed to run from another of her stupid decisions, and she fought against the unseen barrier jailing her. _Haku's magic._ She recalled the first night, and how powerfully, effortlessly Haku had manipulated objects. Yet, she hung her head in silence, refusing to turn back, simply stating, "I've had enough, Haku. We've had fun. Let's leave it at that. I don't know how many girls you have but I don't do that kind of thing. I can't and I won't be that kind person," in a tone seeped in hurt.

"I know," his reply was mellifluous, emphatic. The invisible fingers released their grip, replaced by Haku's strong arms from behind. "Neither am I. You're the only one in this world or any other I'd want to seduce in a vegetable patch, or anywhere else." He hugged her lovingly to him, resting his chin on her shoulder. "I imagined you'd like the sea…I'd hope the sea would be our next time." He whispered into her neck. "I was joking, Chihiro. Don't ever walk away from me looking hurt like that again...all right?"

"Don't toy with me Haku. I'm old enough. If you have someone, I'll understand. After all, I am a stranger to this world, an unexpected intrusion into your life. You should have told me first though, and nothing would have happened." _No matter how much I want you. _For once, her reticent maturity shone through.

"I'm sorry…I should have been honest from the beginning," he continued, pausing, as they both stood in silence, listening to the lull of the ocean just below the nearby bridge. "I didn't realize how much she meant to me, until I saw her walking away from me this morning. I just didn't understand, or realize until I saw you walking away from me, Chihiro."

"I don't want to waste my time Haku…" Still hurt, she was unable to believe what he was saying. _She was the girl walking away from him, right? _Better to stop something before it started. Better to stem the hurt before it could flow. She'd be gone soon anyway.

"Neither do I, Chihiro," he kissed her on the head, tucking her arms over his, lacing his slender fingers between hers, reassuring the life out of her. "I'll tell you a secret if you smile…," he murmured, his cheek pressed to hers. The bird's morning song began and the insects joined in, a breath of sweet air surrounding them; both witnessing the splendor of the sun rising into the lilac blue skies.

"What?" Chihiro smiled shyly, her heart regaining its beat.

"You're the first person I've ever punished or seduced…you'll need to let me practice on you some more."

Chihiro's heart wept inwardly. She caught her breath, releasing the tension in her body, leaning into him.

"And you're the first person who's ever punished me _with_ breakfast," she replied fragile, yet overjoyed, squeezing his hand.

"Trust me, they'll be plenty more where that came from," his melodious voice threatened affectionately. "I've got to go now. I'll be back to help you soon. Now go," and Haku opened the gates for Chihiro, waving her away.

Haku's confession surged her happiness, giving Chihiro energy to survive another day in the alien realm. She ran beaming, turning at the bridge to wave goodbye towards the garden gates where she expected him to be. He was gone.

A silver slither glimmered, sailing like a ribbon in the azure sky drawing Chihiro's gaze upwards. Chihiro froze in astonishment.

"Haku, you're a dragon?"

* * *

Moral of this chapter…if Haku is going to punish you for lying…then LIE like you've never lied before! Ahah. ahem. LOL. **THANK YOU **to everyone that reviewed for me! Seriously you all made my mail box very happy. **AND** you're the only reason/s I've written this chapter. Will see what the response is like for this chapter, so let me know if you want to read more.

**Disclaimer: As in all the other chapters.  
**


	7. Baby Dragon Dreams

**Summary:** A scene taken from the movie after Haku took Chihiro to see her parents, in the first morning in the realm. Chihiro returns to the female sleeping quarters from their garden adventures, and starts her first day of work. Chihiro's self-analysis of her feelings about her predicament – Haku - and ponders about their future.

**Rating for Chapter: **M for adult themes.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**6****: Baby Dragon Dreams**

What must have been hours later, Chihiro stirred from her ball of sleep.

A musky tang and softness pressed against her face. She snapped her eyes open to see white cotton – her t-shirt and shorts Haku had returned to her. The bundle lay as her makeshift pillow in the boiler room, where she'd fallen asleep. Someone had covered her with a purple cushion.

Her hands and feet stretched to opposite walls of the boiler room in a feline yawn. A naked chill crept like fingers under her pink tunic. The piquant of crushed grass swam around her.

Slap.

Grope.

Touch.

Chihiro ran her hands over her heating chest and winced in extreme humiliation.

_No undergarment._

_Someone_ had torn it from her body.

The back of her clothes were streaked with dried green smears.

_Someone_ had crushed her beneath him.

Slapping her hand over her face, Chihiro groaned remorsefully: in the rapturous thrill of _breakfast_ and the self-loathing for falling into _his_ seductions, her mysterious pale second part doesn't seem complete.

He'd said, in that velvety smooth voice, "_You're the only one in this world or any other." _Her chest crumpled in agony at the hackneyed platitude, often proceeding impassioned encounters.

_Did you truly mean it, Haku?_

She snatched the blue swatch of silky material that once covered her femininity from under her head, and snuck on all fours over to the burner in the wall, desperate to destroy all evidence of her indiscretion with the relative stranger.

Kamajii was snoring, apparently, as Chihiro crawled past.

"What happened there?" came a croaky voice above her. The old man was peeking down at her over his glasses, eyeing the blue ball of material in her hand.

"G'morning, Kamajii. I went for a…jog this morning, and fell down a grassy knoll," she lied on the crawl. "I ripped this…top, and think it's better to destroy the incriminating evidence. I don't want Yubaba to punish me if she found out. Please don't tell her," Chihiro begged with puppy dog eyes, tears biting at the hidden meaning.

The old man chuckled, a toothy grin following. His chin rested on the edge of his box.

"I see. Go ahead," Kamajii smiled with exaggerated understanding.

Chihiro rushed through the cubbyhole after burning the incriminating evidence of her scandalous rumble with Haku. She turned to say good-bye to Kamajii. He waved two of his arms, and asked a parting question. "Are you sure you didn't fall under _somebody_?"

He was chuckling salaciously even when Chihiro, flaming scarlet all over, ascended the stairs.

--x--

Outside the bathhouse was a gray curtain of rain, islands of storm clouds drifted heavily across the sky. The workers in the realm were waking to prepare for another day of business. Chihiro snuck back into the sleeping quarters to put on her cherished bra, discomfited by the bouncing of her _Mt. Fujis_. Seconds later, the sleeping yuna woke, like flowers reaching for the sun.

Chihiro gave Rin the same 'went for a jog and fell down the hill' story she'd given to Kamajii. Amazingly, Rin seemed to believe her, handing over a fresh uniform.

"Where were you, Sen? I was really worried," Rin had asked, warming Chihiro's heart at the yuna's concern

Chihiro folded the futon on the floor, her mind trapped in a vicious cycle of contemplation. Her thoughts strayed and wondered what it would be like to lie with Haku on the futon in her hand. She didn't know much about him, not his last name or his age. They hadn't even been on a date! She didn't know _anything _about him at all_._ Actually, it was a lie. She _knew_ he was a disturbingly good kisser and she _knew_ he was good with his hands. She _knew_ when he was near, her stomach tickled and giggled with hordes of butterflies. She _knew_ her heart skipped merrily at the idea of him. Ironic how this morning her body blatantly enjoyed itself – immensely- but her modesty and mind felt soiled, cheap: _easy_. The sickly 'morning after' shameful regret of a one-night stand- in her case, a one-morning lie-down-stand.

_It wouldn't have hurt to play hard to get!_

She chided herself bitterly, though Haku had _accused_ her of playing hard to get! He was sorely wrong. She was simply scared at the inevitable intimacy swamping her: an alien sensation. Perhaps, if she had played hard to get, Haku couldn't have punished her like that. Which was a good thing- wasn't _it?_

Technically, she was still a virgin: and wanted to try remaining a virgin until her wedding night. To say meeting Haku was unexpected was an under- and over-statement. Her pragmatic side compelled her to think about safe sex precautions.

She wasn't on the pill, (had never had to be).

_And where would you find condoms in this place?_

Did Haku have any? Do they use them in this realm? Thinking about first time sex in her world was mind boggling enough. In this twilight zone like place? She was safe-sex-dead-meat. It wasn't as if she could run to the friendly neighborhood supernatural drugstore or anything.

Haku had stopped his seductive onslaught when she had asked this morning…yet what would happen if they got too embroiled in passion? In her heart of hearts, Chihiro longed for it, for him – the noble stranger- despite her down-to-earth moral dread.

_But it's got to be special, romantic_.

Not in a vegetable patch.

The worst-case scenario that plagued Chihiro incessantly was what if she fell pregnant?

_NO WAY! I'm too young._

Flashes of red exploded in her brain at the madness and precariousness of her situation. They hadn't even done the _deed_ yet. She hadn't met his little _dragon_, yet she'd felt its hard length on her. Was his anatomy the same as human men? For crying out loud, he was a dragon! An f'in dragon! A sexy, scary, mysterious and scrumptious dragon.

The color drained from Chihiro's face as her pointed meanderings raked deeper. What would the baby be like? She'd adored interracial babies for their exotic features. But _DAMN!_ Giving birth to a dragon – even a little one- would be a total bitch! Or would it come out as an egg?

_HELL NO!_ _OUCH!_

Chihiro's eyes watered, cringing at the thought. There was no way in bajeebus she'd sit and incubate an egg for nine months! Her head shook convulsively, her hands frigid with imagined terror: nine months in the womb was sufficient punishment.

_GAKKK!_

_This is __**SOO**__ not happening!_ She declared, tremors attacking, shooting down her spine at the horror of the fruits of an unconsummated relationship, an un-conceived unborn baby dragon. Abstinence was the key to save her from that predicament! She was determined not to let Haku turn the key either! At least, not without a first date or two.

"I'm sorry," she whispered under her breath. _Haku_, _you're_ _too fast. I'm too curious. __We're__ happening too quickly Haku._

Rin mistook the declaration as an apology for worrying her, nodding in acknowledgement.

The principle of pleasure without pain was spot on. It would be Chihiro's first time: she anticipated a sweet, delectable pain. Like a frozen Popsicle dropping on overheated skin on a sweltering day.

Tidying up _down there_ was never a priority either.

_Triple shit and a quarter! _

At the moment, she was a rainforest down there! Being single there was no way in hell she'd ever contemplated the nightmarish torture and idea of deforestation to go for a Brazilian. She was environmentally ultra friendly to her private forest – happy for it, until now.

"Oi, you. Time for work!" Rin broke Chihiro from her double-edged baby dragon dream.

--x--

Staff made a beeline to sign in, hanging their name plaques on the board. Chihiro was somewhat slow finding her name. A woman rudely snapped, "Out of my way!" It was like stepping back in time to high school, complete with a high school like bully.

The first order of the day was wiping the floors, staff doubling as human mops running back and forth. The task required a fair amount of dexterity, skill, balance, coordination and speed: Chihiro possessed none of these. Her lack of skill – due to her laziness to do chores at home – shone brilliantly.

"Jeez, Sen, haven't you ever worked a day in your life?" Rin asked in astonishment at Chihiro's lack of progress.

What she would've traded for a good old mop and vacuum. Archaic was great, quaint even, to _observe_ but not to live in.

She was losing the mopping marathon, skating back and forth across the floor between the other women. The wet cloth under her palms ran faster than the rest of her body, sending Chihiro roiling onto her face. Her breasts smacked the hard floor, followed by her pelvic bone. A dull thump reverberated in her skull. The exquisite ache flashed her back to the morning's breakfast. Haku had been hard all over; his strong, taut chest; arms; abdominals; and… other places.

_Quit it!_ She yelled at herself. _Abstinence in thought and action!_

Picking up the stained brown washcloth, Chihiro viciously shoved it in the wooden bucket for a few seconds, for a much-deserved soak and rinse, wringing it out dry and white. To Chihiro, it was symbolic to wringing out her stained and muddy mind since meeting Haku. Whether Haku's mind was a septic tank of filth or not, she didn't care: that was his business. Regardless of how her bones softened at his touch, or how her blood sang when he was near, she knew she had to protect herself from being hurt: in the mind, in the flesh, in this world or any other.

_I won't permit you to seduce me again, Haku._

_

* * *

_Thank you very muchly to readers who put this on their favs and alerts.** A BIG HUG and THANK YOU **to everyone who reviewed! I'm happy to see the awesome hits for this fic. I want to hear what's bad or good, but if people don't tell me how do I know? Otherwise, I'll update depending on hit rates. Thanks for reading anyways.


	8. Private Thoughts

**Summary:** A continuation from the last chapter: Rin and Chihiro have been ordered to scrub the bathtubs. The scene in this chapter is taken from the movie from the time Rin sends Chihiro to get an herb soak token, to Chihiro actually getting the token. During this stretch of time, Chihiro discovers something new about her thoughts, and feelings for Haku.

**Rating for Chapter: **T/M'ish.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**7: Private Thoughts**

Dumping the bucket of brown water into the courtyard, Chihiro caught sight of the same wraith like apparition she'd seen on the bridge in the morning. It looked like a frightening Russian doll, donning a freaky _Noh_ mask in front of the beautiful cypress pines and hydrangea. "Hello, aren't you getting wet out there?" she asked, intrigued at his somehow out of place presence. What Chihiro presumed was a spirit remained in an aura of benign silence. _Surely, he's a guest and there would be no harm in leaving the door open for him_, Chihiro reasoned to herself. "I'll leave the door open for you," Chihiro raised her voice through the rain, and ran off, not wishing to leave the spirit out in the rain.

Chihiro had been lost in her own self-introspection to hear what her next task was, upon her returning to Rin's side.

"Orders from the top so quit your complaining!" the foreman snapped at Rin, who screwed her face in protest. This task wasn't going to be sweet a job in any sense of the word if Rin was so against it. Chihiro finally caught on: they were to clean the public baths next.

--x--

Chihiro shuffled behind Rin, who blatantly ignored the unwarranted attention they were receiving.

Some woman with an irritating nasal voice yelled in glee, _"Heard you got the big tub, Rin!" _

It was tempting to open a can of whoop-ass and beat the living daylights out of the nasal woman – save the fact that Chihiro had never picked a fight in her life, nor did she know how to open a can of whoop-ass! Or even where to get one!

The first day in this realm was definitely like stepping back in high school, complete with the monsters! The spirits and erotically vivacious dragon man thing, losing her name and her parents behaving like pigs, literally, was something else though. Rin continued ahead, nonplussed with two brooms swung over her shoulders. Chihiro followed behind, bewildered by the sight and heat of the place, too afraid to sightsee. The air was filled with herbal mist. The women and frogmen stuck their heads out as they passed from the other baths as Chihiro walked past. Exactly like walking in a high school cafeteria on the first day at a new school: strangers gaping, gossiping and the general nightmare of being somewhere new and unknown.

They stopped and swung to the right. A huge wooden wall faced them, painted with an odd-looking pine tree that had white polka dots- a tree with chicken pox? _Such a tree probably would grow in this world,_ Chihiro thought dryly.

Rin huffed and protested loudly for all to hear, "Those jerks haven't cleaned this tub in months."

Snickers ricocheted around them, bouncing off the walls and floors. Chihiro bit her lip, closing off the silly, childish high school antics of the other workers. Rin, being herself, shot an acidic glare to quiet the antagonists. They ducked their heads back behind their partitions like sideway moles. Rin then stepped down and headed towards a gigantic pot plant.

Chihiro, an unofficially crowned Ms. Clumsy and Uncoordinated, miscalculated the step down, reeling backwards onto her head. The wooden bucket and cleaning implements flew from her hands, scattering around her with an appropriately loud fanfare, just in case any of the workers staring at her had missed the humiliating fall. Again, she bit down and ignored the laughs and cruel taunts. She stood up and surveyed the ridiculously oversized pot plant before her, which _wasn't_ a pot plant. In fact, it was a bathtub the size of her family living area at home. Dried out grass and long weeds lay in a thick carpet wall to wall, though how all the greenery got there, Chihiro had no idea.

Minutes later, after sweeping the floor clean, she and Rin climbed into the tub. Scouring and scrubbing the stone tub wasn't making a dent in the caked on scum. "We only use this tub for our filthy guests," Rin explained. "Disgusting!" the _yuna_ grunted and scrubbed in annoyance.

_Then I'm in the right place!_ Chihiro thought reproachfully. _I'm certainly dirty all over and filthy minded. _It was tempting to take the brush to her body to cleanse herself of where Haku's hands had played, where his lips had tasted. Chihiro's body blushed three shades of red and her nipples hardened, aching for the moist rapture of his lips.

"_Ahhhhhh!"_ Chihiro roared in aggravation, crushing the bristles of the brush to the surface of the tub.

_SCRUB! _

_SCRUB! _

_SCOUR!_

_SCOUR!_

Why couldn't she stop thinking of him? She hadn't bargained on falling insanely, or going insane, when her parents announced they were moving to a country hick town. _This just isn't fair!_

Her pulse calmed a little and the hyperventilation of her heart slowed. _Go Zen, Sen. Go Zen,_ she chanted privately. It wasn't too late and she hadn't given herself totally to Haku. _You were simply having BREAKFAST with him!_ She humoured dryly. And breakfast had never tasted or felt so sinfully good: AND it was calorie free!

"The sludge is so caked on it'll take days to scrub off," Rin's gripe continued.

"Yes, I'd like to scrub him all over for a few days," Chihiro unconsciously blurted, too dreamily, revelling in her perverted fantasies of how she and Haku would cleanse themselves in a bath tub, together, _raw_, just as he liked her. Her entire body giggled and bubbled like champagne at the unwanted daydream. _Haku, bubbles, bathtub, steam, drooolll!_ The incessant flights of fancy plagued her like a virus.

"_WHAT_ did you say?" Rin quipped, arching her eyebrow high.

"Oh! Nothing. I was agreeing with you." She recovered her sanity: ripping her lustful pictures of the wonderland of Haku's body –which she of course had yet to see- to shreds.

The foreman yelled from the hallway to Rin that customers were on the way.

"…harassment!" Rin bellowed in exasperation. If steam could have shot from her ears, it would have. "We'll have to soak it off. Get an herbal soak from the foreman," she instructed Chihiro. For a thin woman, Rin packed vast amounts of strength, propelling Chihiro over the top of the tub in one swift heave ho. Chihiro landed safely on the ground: the tumble wasn't too painful as her head broke the fall with a crisp crack!

--x--

The foreman was condescending as all the workers were to her– and Chihiro really wasn't giving a shit any more. "I can't waste a token on you," he said. He was seated behind a lavish red lacquered lectern set on a platform, happily handing out tokens to other _yuna _without a qualm, while ignoring Chihiro.

"Why are you still standing here? Go scrub it yourself!" he commanded boorishly. "I'm not giving you a token!" A fat, pudgy pink squid thing and a monster-sized chicken hovered by and the foreman's voice sweetened to honey, "Relax, good morning, sir!"

This is discrimination against humans for sure!

_Keep going Chihiro. Keep asking. There is a spirit that will help you soon._

Was she losing her mind or was she hearing voices in her head?

A rich roll of laughter echoed in her head. _Oh, my honey covered Chihiro. Be persistent and push for the tokens. You'll need them._

Chihiro's breath paused in her throat. All right, she had peanuts rattling in her head for sure. _Yes, that's it. I'm nuts: cashews, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts: clinically insane, I'm an assortment of nutty nuts!_

"But I was told it has to have an herbal soak," she pleaded in her most submissive and polite voice.

The foreman barked with insolence and finality, "Well, that's too bad."

_Keep pushing Chihiro. You need those herb tokens, _came the sweet, hollowed voice again, as if it was projected from far away.

Her frightened chocolate eyes darted side to side to see if anyone else could hear the voice. _Nope. No one else is discernibly going gah-gah but you, Chihiro! _she cried to herself.

_My honey covered yaki-imo. Be persistent and push for the tokens._ That voice!

_Haku? Is that you? _She was making a blind guess here. In any case, what had she to lose here, in this crazy place? Chihiro thought sourly.

_Yes Chihiro, _Haku replied, breaking into a soft chuckle.

He was in her head! Not just _talking_ BUT laughing at her, too! Of all the sick _hentai_ things to do! _How did you get in my head, Haku! I'll give you HONEY! _She retorted, half-relieved and fully ecstatic at his kind of present-presence.

His mischievous snicker invaded her every breath. _Do you promise that 'honey' bit? And lick it off, too, please!_

_Haku! _Chihiro fumed, hotter than a volcano.

In a placating, soothing tone he explained, _I have gone on an errand for Yuba__a__ba, but we'll meet soon._

Then. It. Dawned. On. Her. _Holy crap on sushi!_ Chihiro felt the colour drain from her entire body in mortification. Her heart stopped beating at the dreaded suspicion, the realization. Very nervously, very slowly, she asked, _Haku, can you read my mind?_

Silence.

Chihiro stood stupefied, watching the foreman handing out more herb tokens. _Can. You. Read. My. Thoughts?_ She asked carefully in monosyllabic clips.

A loud silence screamed, deafening Chihiro in panic to all around her._ Haku! Can you read my thoughts?_ She was livid now, hoping against hope he couldn't.

_Yes Chihiro, _came Haku's unruffled reply.

_AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! DOES THAT MEAN YOU'VE HEARD EVERYTHING GOING ON IN MY HEAD TODAY?_

Haku burst into raucous laughter. _Don't you want my little dragon, Chihiro? _His voice was one laced with a wicked chortle. _Yes, I have. But I'll not apologize for discovering all those naughty, dirty yet delicious, little secrets you're hiding from me._

_OH MY GOD!_ Chihiro whimpered to herself, feeling her knees begin to buckle in humiliation. He knew everything!

_I prefer it if you call me Haku, Chihiro. The GOD thing is a bit much. I think our relationship has surpassed the formal 'god' and 'human' phase of salutations now._ He replied suavely, sincerely. _By the way, what was the 'Brazilian' you spoke of? And what is a con-dom?_

_SHUT UP Haku and get out of my head! I've got work to do!_ Chihiro screamed in chagrin. _I am SOOO going to kill you when I see you next! Of all the sneaky, omni-potent magic, freakazoid, invasive god on steroid like things to do to me!_ How dare he poke around in her head and rifle through her salacious thoughts of him! Then again, Chihiro wasn't sure what was worse, Haku poking her physically or mentally! Damn him! _Get out now, Haku!_ _Promise me you won't get into my head again!_

Silence.

_Get out now or I won't let you touch me ever again!_ She hollered indignantly, pride overtaking her rage. Her body was breaking out in a hot sweat, shaking in fury at the intrusion of what should have been her private and most intimate feelings.

An assured and provocative laughter answered her. _Hmmm, is that a challenge, Chihiro?_ Haku responded in a tone that made Chihiro's bones soften to jelly. _Just try and stop me from having my way with you. And trust me; I haven't even started 'invading' any part of you yet._ Haku's words came out as a promise more than a statement.

_Get out!_ Chihiro shrilled in mortification, a hot wetting sensation starting to sting her eyes: but not in anger, as she'd expected.

_If you insist, make sure you get those herb tokens. An entity is about to help you out. Until later Chihiro. By the way…_

The few seconds of silence seemed to stretch to an eternity for Chihiro, as she waited. _What?_ Her mental voice was quivering, weakened by a pang in her chest.

_I miss you._ Then he was gone.

For a few moments, Chihiro waited, forgetting to breathe. _Haku?_ When she felt his mental connection go, along with it went a small piece of her heart. But before she could dwell in her self-pity and sudden stab of loneliness, the black wraith thing she saw in the garden materialized to the left of the foreman. She bowed respectfully to him. The foreman turned in the direction of the wraith with the mask, who vanished in that instant.

_Brrringggg. Brrinnng, _went the phone, distracting the foreman for a few precious seconds, at the most opportune moments. A red token with black stripes magically rose from the box stacked neatly with tokens. By the time the foreman noticed, the heavy wooden token dropped in Chihiro's hand and she sped off.

"Thank you very much!" Chihiro shouted, excited to get away from the wraith thing and the foreman. But more poignantly, energized and ecstatic, that Haku _missed her_.

_I got the herb token, Haku! Why ever you wanted me to get it, I got it!_

_And by the way…_

_I miss you too._

_

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_

**Yaki-imo:** roasted/baked potato, often sold in winter (usually the sweet potatoes) from mobile snack carts and snack vans in many parts of Japan. I also need to give a BIG thanks to Misty Voughn who has helped me HEAPS with the premise for this fic. Thanks Misty - I'm a tad belated right?

Thanks to readers who added this to their favs and alerts. And to the awesome readers who took the time to review I LOVE U ALL VERY MUCHLY- I'm sure most authors thrive on reviews whether they say so or not.

Misty Voughn, I love you to death woman for helping with me with this fic. I can't believe how you can go from softness to this rather perverted, sexy and straight out tell style version of the movie. She's sick at the moment but still found time to give creative input to this chapter!


	9. Haku the Considerate

**Summary: **Part one of three in the 'Haku' series of chapters. It's the morning after Chihiro helped uncork all the pollution from the water spirit, and was gifted with the medicine dumpling. Chihiro couldn't find Haku anywhere that night and feeling lonely, decided to keep herself distracted by accepting an offer from a certain visitor in the bathhouse for a secret rendezvous. The next morning, as in the movie, she wakes up and runs to tell her parents about the medicine. I've inserted this extra scene and filled in the gap from the time Chihiro visits her parents (in pig form) to the time she wakes up in her room; where she thinks it was all a dream. She has honorable intentions and wants to tell Haku something. But Haku, being Haku, has other ideas.

**Rating for Chapter: **M/MA'esque for sexually explicit content. _YOU'VE BEEN WARNED._

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**8****: Haku the Considerate**

Her feet ate into the dirt as Chihiro darted between the hedges of flowers towards the barn where her parents were captive.

"Mom, Dad! I got a gift from the river spirit. Maybe if you eat it, it will break the spell!" Chihiro yammered excitedly, stopping at the enclosure, holding her hands over the pen. The stench that assaulted her nostrils was fragrant compared to the uglified pong of the water spirit of last night. A wall of snouts and oinks surged towards her, making Chihiro retreat backwards to the entrance of the barn in fear, and a little disgusted at the tidal wave of pigs: even if two of them were her parents.

Inwardly, Chihiro squealed proudly at aiding the serpent-like spirit who Yubaaba said was rich and powerful. _I did something GREAT in this world, Haku! _She beamed merrily, grateful to Haku for the encouragement in pushing for the tokens. Even though he did invade her personal think-territory and her not so private, twenty-four-hour dreams of him to do so. _Thank you so much!_ She hollered unconsciously bouncing up and down, pinching her eyes jubilantly, mewling at his parting '_I miss you.'_

"I hope the feeling was mutual," came a honeyed sweet voice from behind Chihiro. "And you're most welcome my _yaki-imo. _I apologize I was unable to be here for the spectacle last night."

"_Haku?_" Chihiro bleated, her eyes bulging at being busted gushing like a fountain over him, yet again!

Without warning, two arms drew her by the waist backwards onto a very rippled, heated and exotic misted body. _"Haku, Master…darling,"_ a warmth brushed behind Chihiro's left ear, "_call me anything you like, as long as I can do this,"_ Haku rasped nefariously into the nape of Chihiro's neck, grazing his soft lips across and up towards her ears, nipping gingerly at her lobe, before open his mouth to the quivering curve under Chihiro's chin. His tongue moved lazily over her goose bumped skin, exerting exactly the right pressure. Chihiro caught her breath in exasperation.

She leant her head back to his shoulders, pursing her lips in an effort not to cry out like a porn star. _"Oh goddd,"_ dribbled from her mouth, before she plucked up the will power to pry herself from him. She scampered towards the wall, spinning to face him. Her lips were swollen though un-touched, her hands fisted unable to erase the imprint of his lips: the dumpling a makeshift stress ball.

"They're _supposed_ to be my _private_ and _intimate_ thoughts, Haku! You can't go poking around in my head like that!" she spat indignantly, determined to teach Haku some humiliation and respect: all the while trying not to leer lecherously, up and down his broad, angular physique. In the dawn glow, his hair shone like a dark halo. He donned his customary grey top and cyan pants. The V shape of his body reminded Chihiro of a lily-white beach volleyball player, who simply couldn't tan.

"Frankly, Sen, I'd prefer to poke around your _other_ intimate places, but I fear you'll be less pleased with that _intrusion_, for now." Haku prodded smugly, taking in her cherry lips, dropping his eyes to her heaving breasts, to her naval: a feline smile spreading across his face appreciating the apex between her legs.

Though out in the open, fully clothed, Chihiro felt so ambushed, naked and downright vulnerable. She backed into the wooden barn to put more distance between them. A scarlet blush scolded over her body like a light bulb going on, and intuitively, she clamped her legs tightly like a vice, one hand over her chest the other between her legs. "Haku! I mean it!"

Haku tilted his head sideways, cherishing his cornered prey with approval. "Is that supposed to prevent…access?" he questioned jokingly, his index finger flipping between her breasts and legs.

"_If you dare touch me I'll, I'll…"_ Chihiro threatened through gritted teeth, her jaw set as granite under his suave scrutiny.

"You'll what? Scream with pleasure?" Haku chuckled, moving in a blur and crushing her to the wall, an arm on each side of her head. He pressed his torso suggestively against Chihiro, assuring his now big little dragon was well positioned and greeting her with due perversion. Chihiro craned her head up to his mysterious and very bedroom-esque eyes, in soundless remonstration. The sensual curves of his lips lowered, parted and ready to take hers for his own. She needed his kiss, but _didn't_ want his kiss, as funny as it sounded. Her body took control, sliding down the wall, her modesty attempting to flee what her pleasure-seeking side demanded, _badly_.

"Well, I do feel privileged you're offering to _head_ down there, Sen." Haku's voice could entice a nun to swear off celibacy, non-fussed by her coyness, planting one to her forehead.

Comprehending his allusion, Chihiro froze and stared at Haku's white Adam's apple. She had no intention of 'heading' down there as he'd intimated. The dumpling from last night in her hands fell to the ground, as Chihiro's fingers scratched into the wood on either side of her, entangled once more in Haku's scandalous web. "Why don't you familiarize yourself with the _head_ on my neck first, hmm? I wouldn't want you to get in over your head, Sen," he proffered in a kindly, perverted, solicitous manner.

Chihiro intoned in embarrassment and chagrin. She slid back up to drool at his mouth, an amorous upturned bow shape. She peered up at him through her lids, a deer immovable in uber bright and big head lights: scared, edgy and in dire need of liberation from herself. And Haku, being Haku, wouldn't hesitate slaying any man or creature that dared contemplate extricating Chihiro from him. Deliberately slow, Haku leaned into her ear and whispered, "Your sweetness is intoxicating, Sen. _Never_ lie to a spirit who can read your mind, to a spirit who'll find, even fabricate, any pretext to _take_ you. Front, back, sideways…" the promise in his tone made _all_ the hairs on her body spike sharply.

Chihiro squashed her head back onto the wall, wishing she could sink further into the wood. His lips feathered butterfly kisses along her collarbone, one of his hands guided hers to his chest, where the ropes tied his top together. _"You're lucky I'm such a shy dragon at heart_…but not in mind, body or actions, Sen. Unbutton me," he ordered and Sen's hand automatically started, hypnotized by his charisma.

His mouth lifted from the tip of her chin, grinning affectionately down to her naïve, albeit timid cravings. (Chihiro by now had wised up sufficiently not to attempt a getaway.) His fingers inched up under her top, tickling her rib bones. _"Kiss me,"_ he insisted into her lips, allowing his tongue to slip invitingly between hers, promptly pulling back. He gazed under his hooded lids to her; gold flecks shooting suggestive currents right to her already moist and pulsing core. Chihiro's breath was shallow, her heart hammered painfully, startled at his sudden reticence: the feral eagerness in her eyes no longer shy, but relentless.

Chihiro lunged up, gruffly drawing him down to her by the neck, frantic for his kiss given so freely, yet cruelly snatched away. She was hungry, euphoric for the moist rapture of him, elated at the anticipation of his caress inside her: any hesitations falling to a heap at her feet. She streamed her tongue deeper into his mouth, dejectedly, to have Haku draw back.

"_Haku, what's wrong?"_ she asked, tugging aggravatingly at his buttons.

"In your thoughts, you said you weren't sure about me. I'm helping you figure this out," he said smiling, a roguish flame in his eyes as he stared menacingly at her lonely and trembling lips. "I wouldn't want to do anything you don't want to, Sen, unless, _I_ want to do it," he expounded, still trapping her between his arms. He rubbed his lower body hard over her, running the tip of his nose up the side of her neck, his tongue leaving a heated trail. Chihiro inhaled sharply through her teeth at the torment. "Be careful what you wish for Sen, because you just might get it," he finished with panache, as a stern warning. He would teach her not to _pretend_ not to want him.

Tortured and greatly irritated at Haku for being so _gentlemanly_ as not to let her get carried away with herself, yet nevertheless underhandedly seducing her in the act! Chihiro leaned forward and chomped her teeth into the bend of Haku's shoulder, grinding the silky flesh with relish. _The bastard-considerate-sly-son-of-a-beef-cake!_ She wanted him and he knew it, AND he was blackmailing her with the fact, through his virtuous intentions!

Instead of retreating, Chihiro felt a purr rumble in Haku's chest as he snickered richly, the tone of it freezing her blood, forewarning her of imminent danger. She released her teeth and flipped her panicked eyes up to his hooded, scandalous appraisal of her, a beautiful vicious incandescent of green fire. _"So you like it rough, do you, Sen?_ I give you an inch of my neck and you take a bite. Just. My. Kind. Of. Woman," Haku's serpentine smile was a viper rearing to strike.

Instinctively, Chihiro took advantage of that split second, shoved Haku from her and made a break for it (she hadn't wised up as much as she'd thought). The only direction open to her was inside the barn. It was like the scene from a cliché teen horror flick. Chihiro fleeing into obvious peril, flailing her arms and legs like a gangly spider: except she, the victim was horribly turned on by the ghostly-hot-conniving-dragon-man-thing pursuing her. Her eyes snapped side-to-side, searching for a door in the barn, discovering the windows as her only route to freedom. She spotted a haystack in the corner to the left of the door, promptly stumbling and planting face first into the dry, scratchy hay, her breath knocked out of her. She struggled onto her back and saw she'd tripped over a wooden bucket that remained on her foot.

"And you say you want to take things slow?" Haku teased, towering over Chihiro, his stance over her wide and domineering. "Is this an open invitation for me to join you?"

"Haku!" She screeched as he straddled over her stomach, fixing her wrists to either side of her shoulders. "A bite for a bite, Sen. Don't think I'll let you get away with that, as much as I adored it. I'll need to re-pay you, because debts are never a good thing. But considering I'm a little _soft_ in the heart on you, and very _hard_ in other places, I'll let you decide whether you voluntarily undo your top or I rip it off," Haku cooed leaning over her, his hair falling over his face as a silken curtain. She lay splayed on the hay under him, bewitched, her nipples protruding under the thin top at his suggestion.

"_Y-you wouldn't…"_ Chihiro croaked, stunned, cornered by Haku, pinned down by Haku, and infuriatingly aroused by Haku.

"_Yes, I would. I will_. I did tell you I prefer you raw, correct? You can walk back to the bath house naked after I'm done then," Haku hedged courteously, "One…two…"

"Okay okay!" Chihiro shrieked, jerking free of his grip, untying her outer tunic, quickly ripping the garment open to reveal her flushed speckled skin and black lacy bra.

Haku lunged down onto her gaping mouth, kissing her roughly, avariciously, his tongue battling hers impatiently. His strong hands grabbed her by the ribs and in one deft movement, hauled her upwards to sit astride over him. Chihiro's hands raked through his hair, melding her torso to him. Haku's hands dug into her backside, pressing her down onto his morning arousal. Teeth, gums, tongues ground in frenzied and uninhibited fervor. Chihiro didn't care anymore about restraint or modesty. Feeling Haku's fingers snake under her bra and push it over her breasts, Chihiro plunged her tongue deeper into Haku's mouth, tasting his inner caverns, unwilling to let go. His fingers gripped both breasts, kneading, digging sweetly into the mounds in circular motions, and finally, pinching her erect nipples between his fingers. Chihiro cried into his kiss, relinquishing his lips that immediately went down to take her breasts with urgency.

While one nimble hand coaxed one pulsing mound to ecstasy, his lips suckled greedily on another, taking as much of the flesh into his mouth as possible, releasing to savor her darkened bud. Chihiro nuzzled her face into Haku's satin like hair, the lava like sensation and titillation of his lips overwhelming her. His tongue swirled over one passion inflamed nipple and took the other waiting mound. Chihiro's broken breaths stilled in her throat, and impulsively she ground her hips between Haku's legs, feeling his _turtlehead_ jutting into her.

_Why is doing something so bad so good in a bad way that it punishes me with such goodness!_ She screeched internally, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, arching her chest further into Haku. Chihiro's disorientated eyes slid down to Haku, his eyes closed, his expression replete, in complete cloud nine: his lips glistening, undulating, full and red around her sinewy flesh. Though her heart hammered like thunder and her hormones bubbled in her blood, Chihiro somehow knew, the perverted, caring, if cunning man dragon drinking her up, did feel something for her in his own bigheaded, and explicit way.

Gently, she cupped her hand on either side of his face, and with much struggle, guided his unquenchable mouth from her chest. Haku, unwilling to let go, kept her rosy bud clipped between his teeth, and slid his tempestuous gaze to Chihiro's beguiled eyes. "Missed them that much, did you?"

He grinned rebelliously up at Chihiro, sucking noisily on her a final time before releasing. "Yes, but I missed _these_ more," he said, planting a lingering kiss on her lips, rolling her down onto her back. "And this," he said kissing her nose. He did the same to the tip of her cheekbones, her eyelids, and the peak of her bare shoulders. He lay over her, pushing the mess of her hair and straw from her face, freeing her hair from its band. His face was as she'd never seen it: compassionate, gentle and yielding. For the first time in this realm, Chihiro felt truly protected, even if she was half-naked, in a barn full of pigs and caught under a supernatural being that got off on poking, prodding, licking and tormenting her, bodily and emotionally.

"How was breakfast today then, Haku?" she teased, slapping her hands onto his chiselled backside and sinking her fingers into them. _DAH-AMN! _Chihiro cussed, wondering how his rump would look naked topped with swirls of whipped cream! The lazy pigs rolled their eyes over to the fleshy slapping din, _oinked_ and ignored the humans interrupting their peace.

"I wasn't sure you'd permit me to _eat_ any more, Sen," he smirked, kissing her lips timorously, sending Chihiro's body wobbling, oozing into the hay. "I'm attempting to behave. Are you telling me you want me to be bad, Sen? I can be exemplary good even when I'm especially bad you know."

"I'm telling you I trust you." She surprised herself with the confession, feeling a wee bit guilty about the events of last night about which she had yet to tell Haku. If he hadn't attacked her with his magnificent nakedness and lusciously skillful mouth, she would have! "Haku, last night after the commotion with the spirit I went to…"

"…Bed and dreamt of going to Haku-ville?" he taunted, his licentious character re-surfacing.

"Haku! I'm trying to tell you what I did last night because I want to…" Chihiro persisted under the burden of his rock solid pop-up-and-say-good-morning he nudged between her thighs.

"You want to visit _Haku-land_, the theme park between my legs?" he goaded, his desire let loose, sensing Chihiro was up for it, grinding harder and incessantly against her.

That was it! She wanted to be honest and tell him she'd met someone last night. It was all very innocent yet he was too much of a BOOFHEAD to listen! "You stuck up letch! You're not the only one in this place that knows how to pleasure me, Haku!" Chihiro's voice burst with fury.

"Ah, so I do _pleasure_ you then, Sen," Haku purred with satisfaction, smothering her neck with long, fluid kisses, flitting down to the plateau between her breasts.

"No!" And the awful recollection of Haku's ability to read her thoughts banged at the forefront of her mind. "No, I mean yes, no, you…"

"I'm delighted you've learnt not to tell naughty lies, Sen. It's a shame, really. That means I'll need to find other excuses to punish you now." Haku's mouth tickled over her skin, his left hand crawling down her ribs and un-strapping the ties of her pants.

The _Terror Alert_ alarm system between Chihiro's legs rang loud enough for the entire realm to hear, deafening her head with excruciating panic and exhilaration.

"_Haku, what are you doing?"_ she stammered, craning her head to the side, observing Haku's hand expertly work at the ties. _How many of these had he undone?_ She wondered. I bet it was a man that designed these ludicrous uniforms! One yank and her pants would have fallen to the ground for easy access! As she pondered, Haku's mouth travelled down to her navel, whispering something as his breath swept side to side on her hipbones.

_Oh oh oh! _Attempting to stop Haku now would be like stopping a stampede of bulls, and seriously; she didn't want to stop his sex-stapede... As if she could stop Haku when he wanted something! _Okay, time to desexualize this situation again! Why can't we ever be alone and Haku NOT jump my bones! Let's talk about something boring! _She reasoned._ Small talk! _"Er…Haku, did you design these uniforms? They're um…very comfortable, great material," she tried to sound collected through uneven breaths, his lips hovering over the waistline of the pants that would soon hang on her ankles.

At the question, Haku crept his eyes up, appraising each inch of her body, a ravenous beast leering over her heaving bare breasts. "Sen, if I had designed your uniform the only thing you'd be wearing is a smile_._ Don't bother with any more '_desexualizing' _maneuvers: we're way past that. And if you try, it'll be more than my mouth that _takes_ you today." Haku's lips curled blithely to a provocative threat.

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**Notey note: **Thanks a big fat flowery bunch to the awesome readers who reviewed, alerters and fav do'erers!! WOOT WOOT! I'm surprised this fic is being read and providing people with a laugh or two. Anyhoo, please show me you're interested in reading more, with reviews. I update according to interest and post chapters on a rotational basis for the stories I'm working on.

**_Disclaimer: Same as in the other chapters. I'm still broke and own nothing._ _Any dialogue you recognise is from the movie, anything else, is mine._**


	10. Haku the Nature Lover

**Summary:** Part two of three of the 'Haku' series of chapters. A continuation from the previous chapter, Haku and Chihiro reunite after night apart. Haku's bent on knocking the modesty out of Chihiro, and Chihiro can't really lie as Haku can read her mind. She's caught between Haku and a bed of hay, literally.

**Rating for Chapter: MA **for adult themes and explicit sexual references. _YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!_

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**9: Haku the Nature Lover **

Chihiro puckered her lips, her russet eyes shrinking to needlepoints at Haku's shameless declaration. It was never a good thing to see a steaming hot stud muffin undoing your pants, but to have him peering up between your naked breasts, gleaming with his saliva, and said hunk being able to read your 'playing hard to get tactics' was an all time low! Her entire body went limp, except for the pulsing throbbity throb between her legs.

_Bloody hell! I'm a mess down there! GAHHH! What if he gets his teeth caught in the black forest! Oh god goddess and unisex gods! At least I'm wearing my nice clean underwear!_ Chihiro flopped her head back in resignation onto the golden hay, her palms open to the air in acquiescence to Haku. The early morning chill tingled over her skin as the material slid down past her hips. Haku's overheated hand slid onto her outer thighs, her expensive underwear coaxed downward, and then yanked down past her ankles. Her lids flittered closed, as five slender devils brushed over her forest, hushes of heated breath swept over her upper thighs.

Instinctively Chihiro clamped her legs shut to lock-up her modesty that was already shattered to powdered shards. _How am I supposed to know what to do when a guy is nosing down round there? _She bit her lip, realizing with mortification that she'd trapped Haku's head between her pink thighs.

"Sen, my _yaki-imo._ I had no idea you wanted me here _that_ badly." Haku's green eyes pierced up into her flustered and befuddled beacons. "I can spend the rest of my days hiking your 'forest' if you wish," he offered licentiously. Her legs somehow wrapped over Haku's shoulders and his arms roped under and around her thighs. The fingers of his left hand ran fleetingly through the untamed _foliage_ over which she was mortally embarrassed.

"_Eeeppp…"_ Chihiro squeaked like a hoarse mouse, exhibiting her greenness and confusion at the foreign position. She was self-conscious, scared and vastly fascinated by the sight of Haku down _there_, yet disgraced at the mess that rather enthralled him. "I-I'm sorry Haku," she stuttered on the verge in tears. "I-I'm such a mess down there…" This was _not_ how she wanted to greet a guest for the first time in her Never Never Land!

Haku's fingers suddenly went from raking, to patting her private mane as if preening a beloved pet. "I've always loved getting back to nature, Sen." Haku's voice slipped into tenderness and sympathy, softening at the frailty crumpling her face. "Not everyone likes tendered, manicured gardens," he offered sweetly. A droplet fell from the corner of Chihiro's eyes, breathless and moved at what Haku truly was starting to mean to her. The fact he was sex-trovert powerhouse determined to take her down was a bonus! She dropped her head back to the pillow of hay, instantly jerking her chest upwards.

Haku moved his mouth down to where his hand had toyed, clamping her hips down to the ground to prevent escape. His teeth grazed over her forest, tugging lightly on the strands, before his tongue slid out and found her feminine pearl. A swift lick, twirl, and Chihiro heart jolted convulsively, almost flying from his mouth. She gasped, unabashedly splaying her thighs open to allow him more _access_.

Haku crawled his hand under her thigh and parted her core that, to Chihiro, scorched hotter than magma, its temperature soaring as Haku's lips trailed between her musky flesh, savoring lushly every trace. First, his tongue flicked, leisurely, up and down, each stroke forcing an electric shock through Chihiro's body; a shock of lightning in her veins. She tossed her head side to side, suppressing the scream. The strokes increased in speed – disconcerting speed – and Chihiro's head whirred in every direction, her hands now mashing Haku's head harder against her. Her back arched into him, desperately flattening her legs to the ground, pleading for deeper invasion. On the verge of Chihiro's implosion, Haku pulled his face from her very wet and impassioned feminine heart, and pried her claw like nails from his head.

"_W-what are you doing Haku?" _Chihiro eyes fired desperately, shaken and infuriated at the heaven he'd ruthlessly stolen from her.

"You haven't figured that out, Sen?" He chuckled, one elegant brow up high, the ball of his thumb promptly pressing into the protruding bud between her legs: forcing her sensitive bead left, right, up and down. Chihiro inhaled harshly and cried out nonsensical, agonized superlatives, unfit to repeat.

"_H-Haku," _Chihiro begged, alarmed at the quake starting to electrify her body.

Haku's thumb sustained it's toying, causing Chihiro untold, intolerable havoc of pleasure. His eyes locked on hers, relishing every minute wince from Chihiro's feverish countenance. Haku exerted more pressure, harder with one forceful drive, before sliding down and _into_ her unsuspecting flesh. Thoroughly entertained by the disorientated ache plastered on Chihiro's face, shadowed in the dim light of the window, Haku said in an alluringly supportive voice, "I understand you want to take it _slow_. I'll understand if you want me to stop," he sneered knowingly, very nefariously. He was going to tutor his Sen not to employ the tactics of modesty she hid behind. "I can wait for another time," he said with utmost conviction, as his thumb sadistically stabbed into her pulsing flesh, jabbing in and out mercilessly, slow to fast, fast to slow, rhythmic and controlled.

"HAKU!" Chihiro bellowed. All the pigs popped up their heads like pink, hairless moles at the commotion. _"GET DOWN THERE AND FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED NOW!"_ she commanded in an operatic wail and thrust his face back into her. _I can't believe I SAID that! _Chihiro imploded to herself, _BUT SHIT ON A STICK! I DON'T GIVE A FUGLY! _

Haku, being the meek and obedient soul he was, complied and chuckled wickedly, before burying his lips into her. He withdrew his thumb, taking her into him, his teeth grazing tenderly over every inch between her parted petals. His tongue drove roughly into Chihiro, and then withdrew. Again, his liquid penetration streamed inside deeper, longer with each thrust, twisting like a snake as he withdrew. The last was an enduring and violent penetration, as he parted her with his fingers and covetously, deftly ran the flat of his tongue over her. Abruptly withdrawing and possessing her throbbing bud in his mouth as Chihiro propelled her hip into him, climaxing in unbridled maniac lashes of ecstasy. Her scream- a banshee cry of bliss- of gratification invading the barn was so compelling it sent the pigs watching the spectacle into earth shattering orgasms as well.

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**AN:** This will be my last update until I get settled in Japan. I'm flying out next week!! YEAH TO ME! Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to review the previous chapter. I'd kiss you all but then I might be charged with virtual sexual harassment (or dirty my monitor!)- so you'll all have to settle for a BIG dimply smile and shimmering wet eyes. I know there are MANY people reading this from the alerts and hit rates – but not much feedback. (Scratches head in confusion) Love it if you drop me a line and tell me whether the fic is: good, bad, boring as a door knob, sexy fine, I blush and catch on fire at the thought of Haku, HOT like a steam bath in an erupting volcano or…is it TOO raunchy? Hard to tell otherwise…

See you all in Japan for the next chapter! I'm damn stoked and E-X-C-I-T-E-D!

_**Disclaimer: Same as in the other chapters. I'm still broke and own nothing.**__**Any dialogue you recognise is from the movie, anything else, is mine.**_


	11. Haku the Mischievous

**Summary: **This is the last of the 'Haku' themed chapters. And the last scene before Sen wakes up in the bathhouse thinking it's all a dream. Things seem to be going swimmingly for the couple after a bit of rolling in the hay. :) Haku has plans for Chihiro, who in return, wants to confess something to him.

**Rating for Chapter: **M for adult themes.

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**1****0****: Haku the Mischievous**

The birdsongs floated in from the barn windows, the audience of pigs recovered from their spontaneous orgasms and settled back into their lazed stupor. Chihiro's hips collapsed back to the bed of hay, her iron grip fingers releasing Haku's imprisoned head with satisfaction. A few green-black silken strands stuck to her nails, along with the skin she had flayed from his scalp in her convulsions of rapture. The tremors racking her body subsided from the mother (and father) of all orgasms she had ever heard, known or read about. She'd practically forgotten about the 'Lord of Orgasms' sandwiched between her thighs until his teeth tugged mischievously on what she now referred to as 'Haku's Nature Forest'.

Then, _yoink!_

"_Haku! That hurt!"_ Chihiro shrieked, her eyes watering worse than any boiled wax hair removal could have inflicted. She balked at the excruciating sting as Haku yanked a tiny strand from her.

"_That's_ for tearing the hair from my head when I was SIMPLY obeying your orders, Chihiro," Haku excused with mock hurt, brandishing her little sprout between his fingers like a trophy. "_This _is for biting me!" Haku sniggered enthusiastically, sinking his teeth deep and vengefully on the inside of her left thigh: a short, sharp bite at lightning speed to mark his territory.

His movement was faster than Chihiro's banshee cry, hot droplets trickling from the corners of her eyes. _"HAKU! WHAT THE HELL?"_

Haku, un-phased, plonked his super sexed up sweat-beaded body next to hers, his shirt falling open, exposing the diamond like glistening of his skin that could make the sun weep with envy. He was sexy fine! "All right, I'm done," he declared with contentment, unapologetic. He licked his lips, delighted with his McHaku happy meal for the morning. He heard her ragged breaths and glanced sideways at Chihiro, bearing all his pearly teeth like the devilish dragon he was proving himself to be, and beyond.

Chihiro brusquely rubbed the burning wound on her thigh. Whoever the hell said there was a fine line between pleasure and pain knew their stuff! _"I can't believe you did that!"_ Chihiro pushed Haku off angrily before he could roll on top of her, scrambling to her feet and fleeing to put some distance between them: the bucket still on her foot, and broken strands of golden hair springing from her tussled hair.

Haku lay on his side, sliding his eyes up and down every curve, crevice, and pinked, wet orifice of her body. "Did _what_? Do as my Lady commanded as she shoved my face in to her…"

"HAKU!" Chihiro yelled, ashamed at herself for being so…you know…sexually addicted and for well…as he said, literally shoving his face into Haku's National Forest between her thighs. The nasty thoughts rattled in her skull as she unceremoniously crammed her boobs back into her miraculously intact bra.

"Now, we're even. You bit me, I bit you," he winked staring at the branded bite on her inner thigh he knew was permanent. "I enjoyed myself immensely. So do the inhabitants of the lower levels of the bathhouse know of _your_ gratification, if the volume of your oral gymnastics were anything to judge by," Haku chortled gregariously and tied up his top.

Regrettably, Chihiro really couldn't argue with that. Damn, her _hentai_ hunk even gave her a chance to stop at her physical pinnacle, where he _knew_ she _couldn't_ let him stop. The sexy fine giving bastard! The three shades of burgundy flames burning her body cooled as she stared at the pigs behind her. The pigs in turn stared greedily at her bum stuck with hay, secretly hoping to nip the straws from her.

"The pigs! _No-oh-oh-no-no!_ P-p-lease _TELL_ me my parents didn't see us!" she whimpered to Haku, her knees buckling, stricken by the sickening thought. _"Not my parents!"_ She protested, crushed to a pulp. _I'm soooo going to be living in a total shit-ville if they saw us!_ _If my parents turn back to humans and recollect this…!_ _How could I have been so careless! _Regret and disgrace began to take over from the heavenly sensation flooding her few moments earlier.

Whimpering, Chihiro entreated in a threadbare voice, "Would you mind giving me something to put on, Haku?" she said looking unseeingly at her pants next to Haku. One hand fanned between her thighs, as she tried furtively to tie her top up with one shaky hand: her modesty returning at light speed.

"Yes, I would mind," replied Haku tartly, grudgingly, levitating her black hair band from the hay into her waiting, trembling hands.

"_What am I supposed to do with that?"_ Chihiro quipped at Haku's impish evilness, forgetting her embarrassment and the state of undress of her lower regions. Her figure sagged in utter defeat of her own actions and Haku's apparent lack of humility.

"Hang it on _those_," he instructed petulantly, pointing at her still erect and bruised nipples, "and twirl," he chuckled gyrating his chest hoping Chihiro would follow suit. He then stood, astoundingly spotless, to pick up her pants as requested.

Chihiro pouted her lips and put both hands to work on her ties, ignoring Haku's lap dance fantasies. Suddenly, he was beside her, affectionately hugging her to him in the blink of an eye.

"Here, _Sen_," Haku hummed lovingly in her ear. He spun her to him, cupping her face in his palms, a genuine radiance washing away the hedonistic passion of his face. The defencelessness and dread clouding her eyes struck a pang in his heart. "You _know_ I _wouldn't_ do anything I knew you opposed, Sen," he informed her, gazing down into her pallid face. "_Genuinely_ opposed, that is."

She nodded meekly, pulling on her pants and fastening a knot around her waist. _So, this was the feeling of becoming intimate with someone for the first time,_ she thought, joy and fear coiled into a constricting knot of forbidden pleasure in her stomach. She'd never felt as timid, exposed, and susceptible than at this moment, the cold dampness atop her thighs physical proof of her concerns. _I am a human to the dragon slaughter._ Was this where he'd instantly find excuses not to see her again, abruptly remember about a forgotten meeting and have to leave? Her insecurities and lessons of her human world were prominent and cutting, even in this world. Men were men, in any world, _weren't_ they?

Haku lifted her chin up to scrutinize her fallen expression. "Sen, look at me. I'm not going to do anything to hurt you. Do you understand?" he stated with seriousness. "I might rip off your clothes; bite certain parts of your womanly wonderland…" He smiled nefariously at her, eyes bright with a soft perversion. "I have nothing but high regards towards you. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Haku," Chihiro rasped, clinging hard to his taut and tangy fresh scented body. "But did my parents _see_ us…you know?"

"What should that matter?" Haku declared righteously. "Is it not something people in your world do? Expressing physical affection is as natural as the rivers flow and as natural as Yubaba's head is abhorrently oversized," Haku expounded ignobly down to Sen's puckered face. "Surely you're parents would have had to —"

"_Ewwwww!_ Don't go there, Haku!" Sen's face mutated into fifty-three shades of vomit green, "There is NA-THING natural about parents watching their kids…" she stuttered, huge globules of tears standing in frantic, child like eyes. "Oh _my_ GOD!" She exclaimed trying not to hyperventilate and upchuck in her next breath.

Nonplussed, Haku explained calmly, "When I was a new hatchling, I'd often seen dragons mating mid-air during season. Until recently, I never did quite understand what the thrill was with the chasing, clawing, biting and rough foreplay between dragons before the male would stick-" Haku said in a dream like voice, reminiscing back to the times when dragons were as common as Japanese in Japan.

Sen's loud moan stopped him mid meandering.

"…his wings out to declare his intentions," the doom like aura over her face deflated Haku completely, and killed his dragon-mating-fairy-tale telling. "All right, Sen. If you really want me to stop showering you with physical attention, tell me now and I will refrain," he ceded, kissing the top of her tussled hair, sliding his hand to her lower back.

"Don't you dare!" she shot him a recriminating look. _Okay, so I'm admitting to being a Haku-holic…there are worse ways to abuse my body, right?_ She justified to herself.

Haku purred, the sensation warming Sen and causing her to break out in goose bumps. He laughed, shaking his head. "Woman, I will never understand you, but I will relish the challenge of trying to," he joked, holding Chihiro to him in an amorous embrace, content and in complete harmony of their fledging relationship, amongst the pigs, and flattened bed of hay. He stooped to kiss her, though she cringed backwards from his lips in disgust. "Haku, your lips were just…"

"…_Kissing_ you," he gruffly crushed her to him, taking her mouth for a kiss that made her bones buzz.

Pulling away for air, Chihiro croaked, the very breath sucked from her lungs, "Just one thing Haku, p-please don't keep ripping off my clothes. Rin will get suspicious if I keep asking for new uniforms," she said flustered, and beamed happily up to her dragon. "Especially my underwear…" She didn't want to discuss the pedestrian fact she only had one bra that held her womanly accessories in place in this world.

"There's a simple answer to that, Sen," Haku advised sagely. "Don't wear any." He finished matter-of-factly stealing another kiss to her forehead. He chortled wickedly, enfolding his arms tighter around Chihiro, making up for the time –apparently an eternity's wait- they'd been apart.

Chihiro sniggered, the trepidations of Haku's intentions lifted from her shoulders, as the peachy sun rose higher in the sky over the barn. She had to tell him the events of last night; she didn't want him to find out in the filing cabinet of her mind. She'd done nothing wrong, and wished to be transparent with him. "Haku, last night when you weren't here I met with…"

"Shh, Sen. I promise I won't pry into your mind unless I feel you're in danger, okay?" he assured with gravity. "I trust you and whatever you have to tell me can wait. You're not supposed to be here, in the barn and with the pigs without me, remember? I told you the first day I brought you here. Lucky I found you first." His eyes were darkling wells of magnitude. "I need to run an errand for Yubaba. After that, I'll be back to take you on a…_date?"_ he enunciated the last word slowly, as if speaking a foreign language. Recalling the significance Chihiro placed on the human ritual.

"_D-date?_" Chihiro stammered, eyes widening incredulous at Haku's announcement.

"Yes, that is what you thought, correct? That we have not been on a _date_, yet we'd been rather intimate?" Haku replied, reminding Chihiro of her private meanderings from the previous day.

Chihiro nodded in acknowledgment, a little lost, no, very lost in Haku's arms. Her eyes shimmered, quite floored that he had _listened_ to her thoughts, and _heard_ the meaning behind them. He wanted to take her on a date! Her confession would wait for their _first_ date. _SQUEE!_ Chihiro's heart erupted like champagne at the idea of a date with Haku! What to wear?

Then, Haku was gone. Chihiro retrieved the vulgar tasting dumpling from where it had fallen outside the barn, and rushed back to the bathhouse, without her Haku the Mischievous.

* * *

As always, reviews much appreciated. Soooo who is the mysterious person Sen met with in Haku's absence? Thanks a bundle to my awesome beta darkangel29 for the idea.

**AN:** Sexy fine, originally spelt 'sexyfine' - got the awesome word off the Avatar fandom. I can't remember the creator of the lexicon, if you know their name please let me know. The word was just too cool not to use. Thanks to everyone who reviewed for the last chapter. Greatly appreciated and lets me know people want to read more. I'd originally drafted this chapter before I moved to Japan, and finally got around to editing it last weekend. I'm sooo buggered and it's only my 6th week in Japan! Loving it but sooo much to do and my head hurts too much to start re-learning my Japanese, yet. Maybe in the winter break I'll start again. It's also my second winter for 2008!! lol. Anyhoo, let me know what you think. Next chapter, their first date!! WOOT!


	12. The First Date

**Rating for Chapter: **M for adult themes.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**1****1****: The First Date**

She wasn't a hardened veteran on the dating war front on earth- a green horn, tops. By no means could she hold an audience captive with her plain looks. On the rare occasions when some dating starved member of the opposite sex ventured to ask her out, three things occurred – without fail.

1. Nerve induced pearls of sweat would pour from Chihiro's forehead as she struggled to eject a coherent reply from lips twitching with bliss.

2. She'd spectacularly mangle her reply. Her standard witty repartee was either "Gah gah gah," from a gapping open mouth or, "L'd iove to!" (I'd love to!).

3. As the dating transgressions tallied, they merely sealed Chihiro's fate as a dateless wonder to all those who knew and who ultimately avoided her.

"But she looked so normal…" was the tail end of conversations that burnt Chihiro's ears as men ducked, dived and scrambled for cover in her naïve wake. Chihiro was intimately knowledgeable with the back of men's heads (she'd seen so many of them dashing off or deploying evasive maneuvers!). She could identify the majority of the men she'd scared off in a 'back of head mug shot' police line-up, blindfolded. Her reputation preceded her, blackened and stuck like molasses.

A few times a year, her dating drought was quenched. By men who systematically sprouted six extra arms then they possessed at the start of their dates; octopus like men uninterested in polite conversation or food and beverage. These trials ground Chihiro's confidence and dignity to a fine powder.

Until, her dragon entered. Chihiro wondered if Haku regretted her unremarkable appearance and talent to fit in with woodwork. Ghosts of past experiences haunted the recesses of her mind – that maybe this majestic foreigner was simply taking advantage of a lonely, vulnerable and terrified stranger. Maybe he was reaping an exotic few nights stand (or throw downs, in Haku's case).

"No!" Chihiro rebuked herself, shaking the negativity from her head. She drew in a sharp breath and dropped kicked the rational, insecure deliberations back to her world. Logic had no place in affairs of the heart. Logic only had a place in tangibles like Maths and Science. No way could Chihiro explain why she felt what she felt for Haku…except that it felt logical and clear-cut, deep to the marrow in her bones. Her bond with Haku was real. In the past few days, she'd unwittingly opened a tiny window in her sheltered heart to trust him. "I'm not going to do anything to hurt you," he'd declared nobly. "I trust you," he'd said. And the ultimate prize for _his_ trust bestowed to her, was _her_ trust imparted to him.

"I know you'll never let me fall Haku, unless it's for you," Chihiro flustered shyly, pressing her cool palm to her fiery cheeks. She hugged herself, closed her eyes and relived the heated strength of Haku's embrace. He was too far away if she wasn't in his arms. Indisputably, she knew little of this place. She only knew of the need to save her parents. And undeniably, she knew without Haku's intervention, she would have already perished and her parents served on platter to some well-to-do vacationing deity.

It was the day of their first date.

The sinking afternoon sun yielded to yellow pink threads of twilight as Chihiro made her way to behind the bathhouse to rendezvous with Haku. Chihiro edged her way down the precariously narrow and steep ledge of stairs glued to the back walls of the bathhouse. Only when she made it alive to the grassy knolls at the bottom of the endless flights of stairs did her heart start up again. She was overlooking the whispering dusking seas. She stood at a tiny nomadic pond buzzing with dragonflies and a plethora of pastel water lilies.

She'd presumably arrived early for their date. After her shift was up, as Haku instructed, she was waiting by the sea behind the boiler house at the baby-sized pond. Business had been good for the night. Pleased as punch the foreman magnanimously let the staff off early. Therefore, Chihiro deduced she must have arrived early for their date, too. She padded bare foot to the pond's edge, sanguine and complete with her budding relationship with Haku. She'd found her way home, a home without walls, doors or windows. Her home was where Haku was.

A waterlily ebbed by the edge where Chihiro stood overlooking the sea. She scooted onto a milky boulder jutting over the pond and gently pressed the tip of her index finger against the lemon yellow petals. "He lov- _no no no_," Chihiro corrected herself. "Let's be lit-tle reasonable here. He _likes_ me; he _likes_ me not. He _wants_ me; he _wants_ me not," she mewed, her face aglow with a summer's day. "Actually…" Chihiro paused mid gushing to push the aromatic bloom lightly away from her perch. "Na-ah. Sorry lily," she shook her head with an ebullient beam. "I don't need you. I know how he feels for _and_ ON me." Chihiro mentally fainted at the pornographic fantasies oozing like warm honey down between her breasts to her lower regions. "GAH!" She yowled, like a kid trapped in a candy store, shooting up and bouncing like a jackrabbit on drugs around the water's edge. Pausing for breath, she buried her face in her palms, bubbling with unabated pleasure. "I can't believe HE did _that_. I'll never think of pigs in a barn the same way again!"

There wasn't an inch of Chihiro Haku hadn't roamed, okay, maybe a few private inches. Moreover, Chihiro wasn't quite ready to go there (by herself or with any part of Haku, either). But would Haku accede to her wishes when the pinnacle moment of her deflowering came? Waiting for her wedding night was a constant in her beliefs (a real challenge with Haku around), and not to lose herself in a moment of ecstasy. There had to be some kind of anti-Haku attraction repellent she could take. Was there a method to control Haku's barbarically irresistible sensuality, not to mention her own wantonness? _I don't want him to unwrap me as easily as a foiled chocolate_. _Maybe Kamajii has herbs of some kind to cool Haku down_…Chihiro pinned a mental note in her head for later, to ask the bath house herbalist for some sage advice.

Slipping away was easy peasy. Only Rin acknowledged Chihiro's existence in this realm while Haku ravaged it. The other workers merely spared their precious time exclusively to hurl insults at Chihiro: high school _déjà vu._ Rin also had vanished without a word while Chihiro steamed herself in the bathroom. The gods were grinning big time on Chihiro, so excuses were unnecessary.

Choosing what to wear was easy, too. No, really, with only one outfit to choose from, it really was. There was either the faded pink _jinbe_ work tunic, or the tunic in light pink, or the _jinbe_ in a light rose dusted hue. Her black lacy 'Wicked Secrets' balconette bra survived Haku's onslaught intact- proudly pushing Chihiro's modest bosom up and out in all the right places, with matching undies to boot. Surely, Haku would behave and not tear her overpriced garments to shreds tonight after what…_how_…she'd allowed him to acquaint himself further with _her_ that morning.

Sadly, Chihiro had no war paint to speak of– not even her much loved muskmelon lip balm. And with the extent Haku had been ravishing her lips (on her face and down there) it was a miracle they weren't permanently swollen into a shade of passion-bruised amaranthine. _Being attacked by a dragon isn't anyWHERE __**near**__ as bad as all those Dungeons and Dragons books make it out to be! What do those authors know? _Chihiro sniggered, vainglorious. Sitting with her feet and hands in the pond under the new moon's light, she positively radiated a fearless aura right to her eyes.

Just the first letter of his name 'H' reduced her to a pitiful capitulating puddle of drool. Her heart refused to behave, tittering with gaiety of having found someone at last. She didn't mind waiting for him. If at the end it meant she'd see Haku, she'd wait; regardless of time or place. "I wonder what his last name is?" Chihiro asked the yellow lily, expecting an answer from the voiceless perennial. "I wonder what my initials will change to from C.O. to C…?" Chihiro threw her arms up into the now bewitching sky glistening with turquoise. The gentle chorus of night insects carried on the wind. Stars rained smiles over her as she slumped on her back onto the mossy blanket of grass. "I can't believe he's mine…" she sighed in astonished gratitude, clutching palm over her pulse of her ribs. "_Let's not think of a ring just yet, Chihiro!_ _Maybe after our FIRST date."_

Everything surrounding her began with 'H'. The Hrass. The Hath House. The Hnsects. The Hater Hilies. Hell, she even saw Haku's bewitching, lusciously haunting face centred in winking constellations. He Heally Has Hverywhere!

_I wonder what he has planned? Are dates here the same as in my world…well, hopefully not MY repertoire of dating flops! Or do dragons have some kind of ritual or rite of passage? _She mused curiously. "Woh. Let's not go there, Chihiro. Patience. He'll be here soon enough and you'll have to beat him off with a few tree trunks then. Or at least pretend to. Knowing Haku, he'd probably entice you to hit him harder." She chuckled to herself.

Ensconced in starry-eyed ramblings, Chihiro paid no heed as the night began to slip by. The waxing moon pitched high over the heavens. The night serenade of insects vanished without her notice.

How long had she been waiting?

She didn't have a watch, but the stars and the moon told of nature's time. And Chihiro's feet in the pond visually advertised it. The ashen blue puckering skin on the shin of her feet resembling a shrivelled prune's poor cousin gave a good indication of how long she'd waited. The stirring fire of anticipation inside Chihiro had cocooned her in unquenchable sunshine, blanketing her from the biting nip of the encroaching dark hours, and illume of the heavens painted with evanescent stars.

"Where are you, Haku?" Chihiro asked, a little fretful- still unperturbed- willing him to hear. "Did something happen to you?"

There was only a lonely silence in her mind. Again and again, Chihiro beckoned to Haku. But the expectant velvet butter melting tone of his voice didn't come.

The smile slipped from Chihiro's now drawn face. She splashed out of the pond; promptly face planting into the ground, to discover her legs snoring (as they'd fallen fast asleep). Adrenaline and anger fuelled her and raced through her veins. Repeatedly, she called to Haku mentally. No seductive innuendos or licentious reply came. Chihiro paced the tiny pond until she wore a brown groove in the grass. The moon began its retreat towards dawn. The lanterns of the bathhouse flickered to darkness. The lights of the workers' quarters in the bathhouse blinked off. Had Chihiro been waiting to the extent that the workers were fast asleep, meaning it was morning already?

"Haku?" Chihiro shook the tired away from her head and flicked her eyes from the bathhouse back to the rolling silk of the ocean. There had to be something wrong. Haku should have come by now. _Did something happen, when he was running an errand for Yuba__a__ba?_ At wits' end, she hollered to the sky, eerily dark in its incandescence. "HAKU! WHERE ARE YOU?" A chattering buzz ground in her head after her scream and continued to buzz. It was the chattering of her teeth. She was shivering without realizing it. "Please tell me you're okay!" The panic for his safety struck to her core, the burning anxiety flared over her. _Please be all right, Haku!_

"You'll wake up the entire bathhouse, Sen."

"_Haku! _Are you all right! Where are you?" Chihiro screeched, spinning around in the direction of his voice. But there was nothing there but a chilly dawn.

"_Haku? Please tell me you're okay?"_ Chihiro repeated frenetically, forgetting for naught but his safety.

The silence ticked by, but no reply from Haku came.

"Haku, this isn't funny! I'm tired and freezing! What happened to our date? Is everything ok?" She said biting down the tears surprisingly pricking at her eyes. "Oh God! Did something happen to you? Are you hurt? Tell me you're okay!"

"I told you before. Don't call me a God-"

Chihiro instinctively cut him off. "Ha. _Ha._ Haku," something hidden in his tone frightened her, compelled her to stop him. A nervous laugh bubbled in her throat.

"For an unwelcome human employee, you certainly need to learn proper respect for your superior, Sen. Don't cut me off again." Haku's response was caustic and hard, each syllable more acerbic than the last. "Or are you this scurrilous and fickle to everyone you've surrendered yourself to?"

All the fight, abuse and questions died on Chihiro's bloodless, askew mouth. Her wide eyes reduced to a demoralized, unsettling darkness. She darted her gaze to the lily pads, as if to find an answer to Haku's extraneous, cruel discourse. _Surrendered myself to?_ _He's joking! I know it!_ She told herself, making a strangled noise between panicked laughter and disbelief. "Haku, that's not funny!" She stamped her feet and balled her fists, shaking them to the air as if he was there. "Where are you? You know how long I've been waiting here for you?" She screamed – uncaring if she deafened the aliens in outer space.

"_You insult me, Sen. Naturally, I'm aware of exactly how long you've been waiting,"_ Haku's knife-edged voice cut deep. _"I see your mind, or have you forgotten that, too?"_

"W-What?" The words faltered on her lips. All night, Chihiro postulated about waiting, refusing to transform into the 'Incredible Sulk': a nasty, pouting, seething creature her female friends mutated into if their boyfriends arrived two seconds late for a date. She'd never condoned that kind of behaviour, but could empathize with her friends now. Her sympathetic patience and worry for Haku's tardiness crashed at a heap to her feet at his cruel bravado. "That's all you've got to say! You knew I was waiting! Haku-Godzilla-the-Heinous…" Chihiro dropped her watery gaze to the ground. There had to be a reason why he was this way. She chained down the Incredible Sulk within herself. "This isn't you, Haku. Whatever happened…just get that tight ass of yours here now! You're really scaring me. Please stop this, Haku. Please."

"Just what am _I_ like, Sen? We are yet merely strangers are we not?" Haku's reply slapped Chihiro across the face.

Incredulity rendered her speechless.

"I've been how shall I say it, tied up. Go back to the work quarters, Sen. Before the others wake." Haku's reply was blasé, arcane.

Chihiro stood shaking in the sparkling dawn, her head hung like rag doll, limp and bewildered. _We had a date…We had a date..._But stoically, her last shred of strength and belief, her feelings for Haku the stranger, overtook her battered pride.

"T-Tied up? You mean Yubaaba is keeping you?" Chihiro stuttered meekly, emotions raw. "_Right,_ Haku?" She gritted hopefully, staring at night slipping away, as Haku was.

A carnal laugh ricocheted in Chihiro's head. "I'll never lie to you, Sen. No. I was not with Yubaaba. I was detained by another." Haku grunted in disgust and horror at the thought of being _detained_ by Yubaaba. "Can you imagine Yubaaba binding me with silk ties, dripping candle wax on my nipples-" he cut off chortling at the insanity of it all, his nefarious chuckle buckled Chihiro's knees.

She crumpled to the ground and clutched her abdomen, hyperventilating, unable to digest his words. Her stomach bottomed out, replaced by hollow grief. "If you're trying to be funny, you suck pretty badly at it, Haku. Stop it. I don't like it. Please, stop. Retract your claws from my chest…and come to me…please?" She begged, voice quivering with dread, the truth of his declaration crushing her brutally.

"I'm afraid that isn't possible. I'll no longer require you for any _meals_, Sen. I've discovered a more luscious smorgasbord to dine from. The moon will soon sleep and the sun soon awakes. Go back to the workers' quarters before you're discovered." He dictated with finality in a tone that forbade contradiction.

"W-What happened, Haku? I-I don't understand," Chihiro pleaded haltingly, holding back the sobs. "I-If I could just see you, touch you…talk to you about this…" The words faded on her lips, as she sensed the futility of her plea.

"Sen, you of all people should know I'm a creature of action, not words." Haku's intimation made Chihiro's skin crawl with shame and prickle with regret at the immoral liberty she'd given him over her body. _This isn't happening; Haku isn't like that!_ She defended him, and her actions.

Chihiro raised her head, staring unseeingly over the lily pond, to the distant bobbing lulling indigo silk of the sea. The world seemed to tilt like a seesaw where the hemline of the sky met the ocean.

"That's the way, Sen. Your grasp of the situation pleases me greatly. Like blossoms, women should be seen and plucked before they wilt," Haku recited in a candied and beauteous lilt. "Before they are discarded for a new bloom," he carefully brandished his words as gilded daggers.

The ground swirled in a streaky green whirlpool under Chihiro's knees. She clamped her hands over her mouth afraid the contents of her stomach would empty.

Haku had gone.

His connection was gone.

He'd left her.

Or as they said it back in her human world, she'd been royally dumped. And being dumped was an international language that Chihiro grasped with native proficiency.

After a torturous time alone, slumped by the pond (where she stubbornly clung to hope Haku would appear), Chihiro finally conceded that Haku would never arrive for their first date. She picked herself up and returned to the bathhouse.

Mechanically, she worked her way up the stairs, slid under the covers, and crawled into her futon. Under her covers, a gaping bloody emotional wound left her chest exposed, where her dragon had torn out her heart. Fatigue and pain forced Chihiro's lids closed. Agony kept her awake. She bit down on her lips and wiped the last wave of liquid sadness dry. Her head was blank and lost to all intents and purposes.

_Whoosh_. The entry _shoji _door to the women's sleeping quarters slid open. Frozen on her side since returning, Chihiro peeped from under her covers as two gangly legs and pale feet gingerly tiptoed to an empty futon on the opposite side of the room, from where she cried. She nudged her head up wryly, to discover Rin, grinning sheepishly, eyes bursting with zeal. A tangle of morning hair curtained the side of the yuna's face. Rin oozed an aura of gratification, an afterglow that Chihiro recognized in agonized detail.

"R-Rin, where've you been?" Chihiro croaked, unable to hide the weariness in her voice. Her bloodshot, narrowed eyes masked by the covers. _No, it can't be…_

"You'll never believe who I've been with, Sen!" Rin hissed in an excited whisper, helpless to conceal her titillation. The _yuna_ yawned languidly, stretched her fingers towards the ceiling before snuggling under the covers. "Talk about a beast! GROWL! I gotta get some sleep. I'll tell you all about it tonight, kay?"

Chihiro quailed, muffling her wails of sorrow into the pillow. Rin had unwittingly dealt the emotional deathblow. "I'll never believe it either," wept Chihiro heartbreakingly, mashing her face to the pillow trying to drown her own breath.

That ended her first date with Haku.

* * *

**AN: **Ah I finally got an update for this fic up. It's and extra long chapter to make up for the delay. Thanks to everyone who gave me the motivation to get off my fat butt and start writing this fic again. Sooooo, what do you all think of HxC's first date? Heee...and is Haku is just having fun with Chihiro to pass the time away? Love to know what you all think.

This chapter hasn't been betaed. Apologies for stupid mistakes you're bound to find. Don't know when the next update will be, because I'm more interested in my HMC fic. Will see ne.


	13. Need Help to update please

Hi all.

Sorry this isn't an update- not that anyone is hankering for one or misses this fic I'm sure. Anyhoo, before I go into hibernation from FF, I'd like to get the latest chapter of this story up, for the wonderful folks who've encouraged me to keep going, with their reviews. However, as some of you might be aware I don't have access to Spirited Away where I live in Japan. A few people provided me with the online links before…but I've lost them.

If anyone would be so kind as to give me an online link to where I can watch the movie, I'll be able to watch where I'm up to, and update ASAP. The new year of work and Japanese studies will kill me until November if I don't try to update within the next month.

Thanks for any help in advance.

BTW. Went to the Studio Ghibli Museum (^-^)v It was okay but not what I expected.

Grifter


	14. Reflections of the Mind

**Summary:** The morning after Haku stomped on Chihiro's heart by not showing up for their first date. This is another scene inserted by me. It depicts how Chihiro will deal with what Haku and Rin have done to her. It occurs just before Chihiro wakes up in the movie, to the commotion when Kao Nashi is eating up all the food and being a big spender in the bathhouse.

**Rated for M: **for some coarse language.

**AN:** Darkangel29 hope your new bundle of joy brings you more happiness as the each day dawns. Shadow Blackheart I love you, thank you for pointing out my use of italics. U rock! Readers, when I use _italics_, they are the specific characters internal thoughts. However, if the _italics_ are in **"**...**"** quotation marks, they are spoken out loud and the _italics_ are used for when the speaker is stressing/putting more emotional emphasis into their words.

**--xx--xx--xx--**

**14: Reflections of the Mind  
**

"How come the skies are all grey when they are crystal blue, mum and dad?"

The beat had stalled in her heart. She' d fallen into the realms of the 'loving dead', bleeding sorrow with every leaded and mechanical step. "How come I feel like a fool when all I did was…trust in him? Were you ever mine, Haku?" A barrage of self-recriminations had plagued her sleeplessness, since Rin had returned to the female quarters.

Once upon a time, when men threw her aside like discarded refuse, the embarrassing rejection and disappointment would linger for only a short while, before washing away like water off a duck's back. So why, this time, could she feel the iron fingers of betrayal gripping right to her bones? In the early crimson dusk before the other spirits woke to start their shifts, Chihiro snuck out of the bathhouse to the only place that afforded empty comfort- the barn that housed her parents. She halted at the sight of the wooden structure underneath the wanning daylight. An involuntary whimper caught her off guard, when she saw the spot where Haku had pinned her to the wall the previous morning. She bit down on her fist to stem the cry of humiliation of how easily he'd baited her. She entered the barn, and the tableau of her surroundings distorted with tears. Her heart fell to the dirt floor, as her eyes fixed on the bed of hay where she and Haku had… She'd lost him – for reasons beyond her comprehension- and her parents were irrevocably slipping from her and into their stupor state of bliss. The only comfort the realm, the bathhouse and the barn offered her now was a sham of lustful memories.

Chihiro knelt in front of her parents, who ogled vacuously back at her through their pen. Pearls of sweat beaded on her forehead, but her skin was cold and clammy to the touch. "Why do I still feel the touch of lips his hands, his eyes on me mum and dad…?" A convulsion of sobs broke through and Chihiro's brave façade collapsed, and the stream of hot tears flooded over. "I know that every moment with him wasn't real… a figment of feelings in my desperate imagination. But it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt!" She wailed into her palms, and the pigs grunted disinterestedly at the disturbance she was causing.

Her tenacious certainty (or was this denial?) that one day, something or someone would truly want her, had clawed on a precipice of hope by its emotional fingertips in the human world. Haku's actions of last night had stomped on those fingers, throwing hope over the edge, plummeting Chihiro's fragile positivity into unrecoverable depths. Something snapped clean inside her. One rejection too many, one man taking advantage of her guileless nature too many: each experience spreading a web of bitterness in her heart wider. Haku's calculated deception was the final kiss of death that slammed the beating vessel to the ground, crushing it into a fine powder.

The cloak of pained enlightenment stretched Chihiro's skin taut with cynicism. Chihiro's weeping faded and a jaded laugh bubbled inside her. "Opened a can of dumbass didn't you, Chihiro? You wouldn't serve yourself on a silver platter to some asshole in your world, then why do it here? Asshole-ness is a universal language!" She threw her head back and snorted with malevolence at her foolishness. "Your own fault you got stood up and stomped down!" Chihiro cackled dryly. "I'm not going to dwell on him as I did those losers back home. I'm not going to dwell!"

The lavender threads of twilight crept across the sky as the red sun sunk behind the bathhouse. Curlicues of steam wafted upwards from the rustic pipes behind the bathhouse. Sparkles of ivory light flickered in the windows, signifying the start of a business day.

Chihiro gathered her regrets and crammed them into an over stuffed drawer in her mind. She picked herself up and trudged back to the bathhouse- shutting out the salacious barn escapades that she had with Haku, which played on loop like a flop of a movie in her head. Numb was she to the fact she had neither friends nor allies in this world. Not even Rin, who seemed especially cool, once..._Why Rin, Haku? _Had Chihiro's female intuition been on the mark, the first time she'd met Rin? Was the jealousy that stabbed at her when she heard the overly flippant and familiar tone Rin used with Haku, warranted? Where was Haku? Would he scorn and avoid her if they were to see each other in the bathhouse in the course of work? _"I don't know! I don't know!"_ Chihiro clutched her head and tried to pummel the doubts and fearful anxiety from her skull. "What do guys do after they drop kick you…dodge you like a girl with hairy armpits? I'll never see him again…_will I_?" Chihiro blubbered, wiping the stream of salty wetness from her swollen eyes. "I was going to go home anyway before he seduced me!" she justified, in an attempt to reason to herself of why Haku sucker-punching her in the heart was a good thing. "There is always a bloody silver freaking lining to an effing deceitful-relationship-that-never-was!"

xXx

The commotion of workers shoving Chihiro like a pinball didn't phase her today – she felt nothing of the jostling and petty name-calling. Nothing could wound her now compared to what already consumed her. Her entire universe was more chilling and darker than a winter's night – everything was a blur yet motionless at the same time. She remembered someone shoving a washcloth in her hand and barking orders at her. She remembered scrubbing, watching her hand perfunctorily scouring a groove in the wooden floor. Her mop of auburn hair hid the agony chiselled on her features. No one seemed to notice, or cared to notice.

"Sen! Where on earth did you get to? I looked for you everywhere! I got food for you and you didn't bother to show up to eat it!" Someone's high-pitched wail popped her balloon of anguished misery.

In a flash, everything became sparkling clear- she could have heard a mouse squeak in a Saturday market square – her senses heightened to supernatural depths at hearing _that_ voice. The grinding voice jolted Chihiro back into reality. That traitorous inflection, that person's presence set the veins in Chihiro's temple throbbing like furious worms. She bit down on her lip, gritted her teeth, and purposefully stood up. Her sunken eyes bore holes into the ground she'd been punishing, scrubbing her purgatory in to it. Predatorily, inch-by-inch, Chihiro eyes stalked up the length of the _yuna's _body. The sight of Rin was burning Chihiro's retinas with brimstone fire. The first wave of rage whitened her fisted hands.

_SLOSH!_

"_OI! What was that for?"_ Rin squalled indignantly, taken by surprise and hastily ducking as the dirty sopping and dangerous rag clipped past her ear. _"Have you gone made, Sen!" _

Gone was the mild mannered, docile Chihiro. Her first shot at anger was a masterpiece. Over compensating for all the missed histrionics in all her life, which she'd suppressed to keep the harmony for those around her. She completed the anger combo with a superb follow through. With all her might, she threw the bucket of muddy water at the unsuspecting _yuna_. Umbrage had never felt right before but today, anger was righteous itself.

"_ARRGGHHH!"_ Rin shrieked before soapy water damned her gaping mouth, the bucket smacking her hard on the right shoulder. She tumbled back into the wall of workers gawking at the spectacle, eager for a bloodier fight.

"Foreman! The smelly human's gone berserk! She's attacking Rin! Her head looks like it's just about to shoot off into the roof! There's steam spouting out of her ears!" The gaggle of workers screamed, tightening in a circle around the excitement. From their point of view, it did appear as steam was gushing out from Chihiro's ears, but it was merely the heat rising from the tubs behind her.

"_That's it! You're off my New Year's card list! You little psycho! You're supposed to clean the floor! Not me!"_ Rin fumed in a deafening pitch, turbid water streamed from her limbs quaking with lividity

The Foreman stomped up behind Rin, his chin wobbling with vehemence. Flakes of red speckled his face marking his disproval of the spectacle Chihiro caused.

"_Rin, are you all right?"_ the Foreman blustered his face creased with concern. Under the current of supervisory care, the honey of his voice gave Chihiro spontaneous cavities.

The savage indignity melted from Rin's face but flared in her squinted eyes. _"I-I'm fine but I don't know what's gotten into Sen!" _Her eyes shot spears at Chihiro as she clutched her aching shoulder.

"_WHY! WHY! Of all people! WHY?"_ Sen launched at Rin who adroitly side stepped towards the Foreman. Chihiro plummeted into the Foreman's wide girth, bounced off his hard potbelly and crashed landed on to the floor.

"Well! Fine, then! If _didn't_ want me to get something to eat, you could have just said so!" Rin's tenor trembled with shock and dismay. _"All this over me bringing you some nosh! It's a bit much, Sen!" _Rin leant over Chihiro, in a tower of anger topped with bruised pride and started wringing the soiled water from her sleeves.

Chihiro sat like a rag doll in a heap before the Foreman and Rin. The battering of questions started up again, rapping between her ears. _Did Rin know about me and Haku? Did Haku tell you? Did Haku know about me, suspecting you? Did you care, Rin? Why Rin, Haku? WHY! _ Chihiro's breath staggered, her chest hyperventilated with agony, and the waterworks washed over again. _Desperate is as desperate does! You're a pathetic desperate ditt! That's why Haku got into your pants so easily! _

Rin was the manifestation of all Chihiro's insecurities – a lithe, sanguine, boisterous woman who could have what she, Chihiro, wanted. That _thing_, was Haku. Maybe it was the red lipstick that Rin always wore that attracted men to her like bulls. Even the Foreman seemed taken by Rin all of a sudden.

"Sen! You're disrupting the workers, not to mention what you've done to Rin! Rin my-," he stopped himself mid-diatribe, and pulled on his the strap of his pants, as if to adjust his thoughts. "I mean, it's not good for staff to be quarrelling. _Especially. YOU!_ Go! You're oozing malice and misery and it's not good for staff morale or business! Away to the basement to the old man with you! Maybe the heat will burn some sense into you!" he ordered with finality, his fingers jutting violently to the stairs.

The workers 'oohed' and 'ahhhed' haughtily at the wicked delight that the human girl was getting spoon-fed her just desserts. "You see! She's too ashamed to say anything. Probably doesn't even have the manners to apologise! _Why_ did Master Haku dump her with us? Maybe he couldn't bear her stench, that's probably why he wanted her as far away from him as possible."

Chihiro dragged her feet through the mess she'd created, concentrating her malice and misery on the floor. Her fists ready to clobber the living lights out of the spirits who dared speak that _demon's_ name. _"What did you say?"_ Chihiro spun on her heels, pinpointing predator eyes in the direction _his_ name came from. The _yuna_ huddled and cowered together like the spineless slugs they really were – hands to their chests with feigning grave indignity. _"Well, of all the nerve of the chit!"_

"Sen! That's enough! Go NOW, before I report your actions to Master Haku! Down to the basement! That's where you're confined until I change my mind!" The Foreman's nostrils flared with rage. _"NOW!"_

With that, Chihiro, pushed past a sopping Rin without a word. _I'm so sorry Rin. I can't help but hate you for what you didn't know you did. Did you? I hate this place. I hate him! I want to go, mum and dad!_

xXx

"Well hello, Sen. What brings you down to my humble basement?" Kamajii's tender, welcoming tenor beckoned Chihiro into his abode.

"_Eep, eep!"_ A chorus of chitchat floated from the floor of black fluff balls.

She simply cuddled her knees to her chest and buried her face in arms, frozen to her marrow despite the desert temperatures of the basement.

Kamajii peered down his grandpa glasses and assessed the shivering huddle against his wall of herb drawers. He crawled soundlessly off his wooden perch. "Well, there's nothing a steaming cup of hot tea can't solve," he said and he poured Chihiro a steaming cup of amber brew that glimmered of with gold ripples. "Here, sip on this," the old man prodded kindly on her shoulder.

The tiny clouds of heat and tang of the liquid invaded her nostrils, and it _did_ smell tempting. Chihiro lifted her hooded lids slightly, staring questioningly at the cup. "Am I ugly? Am I that hard to care for, Kamajii? Do I have 'Loser Ground Zero' stamped on my head?"

Kamajii, for the first time, took a good, close look at the human before him. If she wasn't sneaking in to burn her underwear in his furnace, she was not to be seen in his basement at all. Her face wasn't by any stretch a typical beautiful. Nor was she physically blessed with more curves and bumps than an erotic vegetable (Yes, Kamajii had a penchant for sexualizing vegetables!) However, she was a definite _atypical_ beauty; saucer like eyes that took all in, flecks of Aurelian in those depths that held no malice. Naturally, defined brows not overly plucked, a button nose perfect for Eskimo kisses, and those lips, for the right person, would taste like creamy green tea ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup; and a smile that made hearts giggle. Chihiro possessed a trait that no make-up or any artifice could replicate, a genuine angelic appeal that glowed brighter than a diamond in the dark. Her body didn't look half-bad either, under the clothes!

"Sen, beauty comes from deep within, my dear," Kamajii comforted empathetically, pushing aside his old man dirtiness.

"It doesn't help if my intestines are beautiful! It's not my liver people see first when I walk down a street!" She bellowed, about to unleash her trauma, when Kamajii skilfully manoeuvred the teacup to her lips.

"Drink this and tell old Kamajii what ails you, Sen? Hmm?" He beamed and his moustache twitched. It was literally eons ago that he'd dished out any great-great-great-grandfatherly wisdom to anyone.

Chihiro unceremoniously took big slurps of the tea. The liquid washed over her wooden tongue and slipped into her parched throat, leaving a cloying satin aftertaste in her mouth. The surge of warmth sent her limbs limp and her pulse meandering to a leisurely pace. She paused and stared unseeingly into the cup. Minutes later, certain she could articulate herself to Kamajii, she said, "He…I …we…then…Rin…" Okay, maybe that _wasn't_ as eloquent as she had planned out in her mind. Chihiro took another mouthful tea, ready to take another stab. Why did she want to spill her guts to this old man in disturbingly tight clothes, with six arms and dodgy moustache?

"Hmm…from such a riveting and magniloquent recap…it's a tad difficult for me to deduce what may be troubling you, Sen. But I gather it has something to do with a 'he', and you…and 'we'…and then Rin…Am I correct?" Kamajii coaxed with a toothy grin.

Chihiro nodded glumly, wiping the silvery water standing in her eyes with the back of her hands.

"Haku does posses that silent, intense boreal and mysterious quality the ladies and some _men_," Kamajii winked suggestively, "often die for."

Chihiro spat out her tea, gagging within an inch of her life, her eyes burst out of her head with horror, and nausea at what she assumed was the old man's revelation. "Y-you mean….you have the hots for…?" Haku got it on with Kamajii and then her? _Ewww! _ Chihiro grimaced privately, scooting away from the old man. He really was a filthy, sodding ancient pervert with six arms! _Haku is gay! OMG! This can't get any worse! Haku is a tri-sexual! Try anything kind of guy!_ Chihiro wailed in quiet hell. She clamped her hands over her mouth, not to stop a scream but to prevent the contents of her stomach coming out. _Maybe being ditched isn't so bad after all!_

Kamajii chuckled with amusement, stroking the ends of his moustache. "Oh _no,_ Sen. I prefer my partners with at least four arms and of the feminine persuasion. _Although_, there have been guests who'd have given their spirits simply to have Haku glance their way, to entertain their advances. That boy doesn't fool around with those that don't capture his interest, Sen. If he wants someone, they will know. If he doesn't, they'll be as equally aware. "

Chihiro slumped back onto the wall, gay-induced-vomit forgotten and dived back into her pit of despair. _Oh! I know he doesn't want me. He made that clearer than a sunny day. That smarmy ab-rippled-to-die-for-bastard! _How many women had he sampled and discarded like fallen cherry blossoms? _"Haku is…" _ Chihiro shook her head, recalling _those_ achingly tremulous moments, the caresses, the kisses, his words they'd shared together in the past few days. All were cruel lies intent on seducing her in the barn. "…not worth talking about…," her mouth quivered and she skulled the remainder of the tea.

"You know, Sen, some spirits possess the power to read thoughts, smell pheromones and an endless variety of very handy powers." Kamajii settled down across the table from her, testing the depths of Sen's knowledge about the young dragon boy.

"Can you, Kamajii? Do you have those powers?" Chihiro averted his concealed question and probing gaze, turning hers back to the furnace, afraid the old man already knew what ailed her. She'd dared to think she'd found her saucy samurai who'd honour and defend _her_ honour – instead of demeaning it, using her as a cheap plaything.

"I only have the gift of the gab, Sen. But I don't need supernatural powers to see you are indeed rather crestfallen. The sun has gone from your eyes, the light of the moon has left your complexion," Kamajii intoned with all seriousness of a heart attack. "Not to mention your crying and running nose are a dead give away," he chortled patting Chihiro's shoulder.

"I don't want to talk about him anymore, Kamajii. I made a stupid, uber mistake and let my emotions control me. It's not going to happen again! I'm going to find a way to rescue my parents. I'll return to my own world, where I belong, and I'll _never_ look back!" She declared in an unconvincing boom. "I just want to go home, Kamajii. And forget the past few days. Please, _please_ help me." Sen scrambled onto her knees, tugging at any of Kamajii's arms she could grab.

"So I assume the 'He' is Haku, then?" Kamajii inquired gently.

Chihiro clamped her lips and blinked away the tears marring her vision. She swore off _his _name, dogged never to utter that foul word again. He no longer existed…he no longer existed… "He doesn't exist to me." There was no excuse for his actions, his words. Chihiro wiped the tea from her lips with her sleeve and planted an awkward smile on her face. "I need to find a way to save my parents, Kamajii. I need to turn them back into humans. Please, can you help me?" It was what she should have been thinking about in the first place. She deserved all she was getting. The shame garrotted her intestines at how she'd abandoned her parents because of that dipshit!

Kamajii looked at Chihiro, a sagely, guarded expression crossing his features, as if he was hearing every click and churn whirring in her brain. "I see…," he simpered and stroked Chihiro's bowed head before pouring her another cup of tea. "_I_ know of no method to free your parents, Sen. No one has ever escaped from the bathhouse. However, I foresee, one day, it will be the _one_ that no longer exists to you, that will aid you in your quest, Sen."

Chihiro tore her doleful stare from the floor to gape at Kamajii. She bit down obstinately, her eyes wide with titanium conviction, shaking her head with exaggerated slowness.

"Ah. _Ah_." He wagged his finger back and forth like a teacher to a student who started arguing before hearing the argument. "You don't need to believe me, Sen. I can't imagine what happened between the boy and yourself, well, actually… I could! _Did_ _you—"_ His eyes went all starry and he flapped his hands around with exasperation, tingling all over thinking of the hanky-panky that youngster got up to.

Chihiro's stony face shut him up, fast.

"Ahem." He adjusted on his non-existent collar, caught off guard from his best behaviour. "Things will be settled when they must be, Sen. I am rather certain these _things_ are yet to be settled. One cannot lock away one's pains and escape one's obligations, Sen," he hinted cryptically, the hanky-panky imaginations still lurking in the back of his mind.

"_Ob-li-ga-tions?" _Chihiro squeaked, lids fluttering in puzzlement. What did Kamajii mean?

"In time, you will understand, Sen. Now, go wash that gloom off your face. Then, you can help me grind some herbs. Those tears of yours will affect my herbs and the _susuwatari_ won't work if they see you plagued with sadness."

* * *

**AN:** Yes, in Japan they do serve green tea ice-cream drizzled with chocolate syrup and a lot more yummy stuff. YUM! As always, love to hear what you think so far.

As promised, an update after a tiring absence for me. THANK YOU so much to everyone that sent me links to the movie and reviewers too. I checked them all out and found a bit of writing mojo back. Huggles to the wonderful PMs from awesome readers too- it truly helped to motivate my tired brain. I've replied to all reviews and PMs, but if I somehow missed yours in my insanity, please let me know. I've been told by a few people that they never received a reply from me - so I have a feeling it is ff eating my PMs as I replied to each and every PM I got. :( I had a few anonymous reviews that I couldn't reply to – so if you were one of them, my apologies.


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